Paper Mario 2 and a Half
by Walkazo
Summary: "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door" based. When Mario and his friends investigate the appearance of an 8th Crystal Star, Peach is kidnapped by a mysterious evil Yoshi, and Bowser's not the only thing standing in the way of her rescue.
1. I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Stars

**Disclaimer****: **_**Mario**_** is owned by **_**Nintendo**_**, and any other trademarked names I may mention belong to their respective distributors, whoever they may be. But the story and a few places and characters in it were all created by my little brother and I, and we own them.**

**Author's Note****: My little brother 'Pantaro Paratroopa' actually came up with this story, but since he takes forever to type stuff, I did it for him (I want to use the computer too, to write MY stories, mwa ha ha!). Also, other than the backbone story, the Peach and Bowser Interludes were completely created by me, that's why they're way better than the rest of the story. ("Not true!" whines Pantaro Paratroopa, "stupid sisters." I laugh ominously.) On a final note, during the story, the Yoshi Kid will be referred to as G-Yo.**

**Paper Mario 2 1/2**

Prologue: I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Crystal Stars,

Rogueport Plaza

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it! 8th Crystal Star Discovered! Amayzee Dayzee Enters Glitz Pit!" boomed the voice of Rougeport's newspaper vender, Noi C. (a Cleft), who was standing just outside of Zess T.'s. Next to him was Mario; Goombella, the helmet-wearing, book-loving Goomba girl; Koops, the cowardly Koopa; Flurrie, the retired theatre actress cloud spirit; G-Yo, the infant orange-haired, blue Yoshi with an attitude problem: Vivian, the kindhearted ex-shadow siren; Bobbery the old sea-dog Bob-omb; and Ms. Mowz, the infamous treasure hunting, badge collecting Little Mouser.

"An Amayzee Dayzee! Man, that will be hard to beat!" said G-Yo, reading the newspaper, before Koops snatched it away and skimmed over the significantly more important article.

After a minute of reading, he exclaimed aloud "An 8th crystal star! We have to tell Frankley about this, pronto! But I wonder wha-"

"David H. Jones!" Bobbery interrupted, "We also have to tell Frankley about THAT! In the Southeastern sky!" Everyone looked, and saw a… Paragoomba. "I mean Northeastern." Everyone looked again and saw a Large Purple Wormhole!

"To Frankly's," yelled Goombella.

Everyone ran, except Koops, who remained behind for a moment and finished the sentence he had started before: "–t happens when we get it."

Later, at Frankly's

"I don't believe it either, but there is solid proof," said Frankly. "Now, we don't know the exact location of the star, but I have a hunch that it is somewhere on the other side of the wormhole."

"Don't we know someone in charge of a big cannon?" said Vivian.

"General White!" exclaimed Bobbery. "I'll call him. His Number is 917-231-4949… Wait, that's Pizza Dinosaur."

"Ewwwwwwww! You like Pizza Dinosaur! Mona Pizza is waaaaay better!" said Goombella.

"Wait! Now I remember, General White's phone number is 111-111-1111!" grinned Bobbery.

"How could you forget that?" said G-Yo incredulously.

"I'll call him now," said Bobbery, ignoring the Yoshi kid and dialing the number on Frankly's phone. After a moment he got through, "hello, is this General White?" Bobbery turned away from the phone, "that's strange, he's at home **and** he's awake."

"Well Bobbery," said White over the phone after Bobbery told him about the wormhole, "if you want to use the cannon you'll have to wait, it's time for our semi-annual mid-winter cleaning, and the cannon's been temporarily disassembled for re-oiling."

"Oh, I see, well thanks anyway," said Bobbery before hanging up the phone. In Fahr Outpost General White shrugged, put down his phone and promptly fell asleep.

Back at Frankly's, Bobbery broke the bad news to his friends.

"Rats, now where are we going to find another giant cannon-thing?" huffed Goombella.

"Well there is one in Astroville," said Frankly, "the village to the far south of Twilight Town."

"Alright! Let's-a-go!" said Mario, jumping towards the door.

"Wait!" cried Ms. Mowz, "we should go to the Thousand-Year Door first, sweetie, for old times sake!"

"You just want to look for treasure in the sewers some more," said G-Yo.

"Whatever the reason it's still a lovely idea," said Flurrie. G-Yo rolled his eyes but followed his friends out the door.

"Good luck!" said Frankly from his desk as the door closed behind them.

The Thousand-Year Door Chamber

Lots of exited people are gathered, waiting to see if the usual light show occurs when the Door is alerted to the presence of the 8th Crystal Star. Mario steps up to the platform with the map and shining blue lights illuminates the room.

"Weeeeeee!" squealed Koops excitedly.

"Shhh!" hissed his girlfriend Koopie Koo, who was in the audience next to him, "you're embarrassing me!"

Suddenly the map changed to include a large bridge extending south from Twilight Town to the newly charted Astroville, the wormhole also appeared in the northeastern corner of the map, and inside it was the purple Amethyst Star.

"Well, now we know for sure where to go next," said Goombella.

"To Twilight Town!" shouted Mario; the crowd cheered.

**Peach Interlude #1**

Rogueport Inn

Peach sighed as she stared at the big creepy wormhole through the window. Mario had left without a word after finding the location of the 8th Crystal Star; he didn't even ask her if she wanted to come too. Of course, she had been a bit uncertain about that vortex – they had no idea where it went, or how they could get back. _Maybe Mario was protecting me,_ thought Peach, _and not just being inconsiderate_.

But he shouldn't protect her all the time: Peach was tough; if she knew what was coming, she could protect herself, especially when she had her favorite frying pan at hand. After all, she had been a great help to Mario, Bowser and the others when they went after Smithy a while ago, and he resided in another realm too. Sure Exor wasn't a big swirling wormhole, but he was still an inter-dimensional portal, and Peach had survived **that** trip.

Peach then heard the stairs squeaking behind her, she turned around and saw another left-behind. "Luigi!" she said happily, "what're you doing here?"

"I just thought you could use some company," he said.

"Oh, well Toadsworth should be back any minute so you don't have to worry about me," she said, before a thought occurred to her: maybe Luigi was the one who wanted some company. "But you can stay if you want," she added hastily, before she hurt the green plumber's feelings.

"Thanks," said Luigi, sitting down at the table, Peach did as well. The two talked for awhile: Peach loved hearing about Luigi's adventures in the Waffle Kingdom, and unlike Mario and his friends, she didn't fall asleep.

Eventually Toadsworth came up the stairs, "I'm back Peach! Oh, Luigi! How are you doing m'boy?"

"Fine, you?" asked Luigi politely.

"Oh, very well actually, since Peachy is safe for a change," the old Toad chuckled.

"Um, Toadsworth," said Peach nervously, "I was actually thinking of joining Mario's group when they came back. You know, if there's more than one extra Crystal Star, that is."

Toadsworth looked a little taken aback, but after a moment he smiled at the princess, "ah, you always were adventurous! Well, I suppose you can." Peach cheered and hugged the old butler, who smiled and said, "well, since you're not going just yet, how's about a nice rousing game of cards?"

"Oh yes! How about Go Cheep-Cheep?" inquired Luigi happily.

"Smashing choice," said Toadsworth, Peach was happy to join in too, but she was more happy to be going on another one of Mario's adventures.

**Bowser Interlude #1**

Bowser's Castle

"Gwa ha ha!" laughed Bowser, stomping happily through his castle, followed closely by his advisor Kammy Koopa. "I love fame! I love power! I love that stupid plumber's stupidity!"

"And I love seeing you in such a happy mood, Your Loveliness," said Kammy, not realizing the awkwardness of her latest title, however Bowser did.

"Uh Kammy, never call me 'My Loveliness' again."

"Oh! I'm so sorry, sire!"

"Don't sweat it! I'm in such a good mood I'm not even gonna flame you for it!"

Kammy smiled nervously and tried to say something but Bowser cut her off.

"I mean, who wouldn't be happy if one minute they had been wandering around broken and bleeding in some washed-up villain's lair, and the next, they found a powerful treasure no one even knew existed!" Bowser laughed again, "and to think, Mario had been in that very crypt and didn't even look behind the coffin? Oh! And those idiot historians, they should've known that the Shadow Queen would've kept at least one Crystal Star on her person; that's what I would do!"

"But, when you captured those Star Spirits you gave all of them away to your minions and didn't keep a single one," said Kammy.

"That's because they could talk and were annoying! Of course I wouldn't keep them around! Peach is bad enough!"

Kammy knew all too well how annoying the princess was; Peach and her stupid Star Kid had even defeated Kammy herself, one of the most powerful Magikoopas around!

Bowser suddenly stopped walking and held his hand out to Kammy, "since we're on the subject, I want the Amethyst Star back – you've had more than enough time to analyze its magical properties."

"Uh sir, I've actually, uh, got some bad news," said Kammy, looking at the ground.

"Don't tell me it was another fake?" said Bowser, his face falling.

"No it was real, only, it was… stolenbyaBlackYoshi," she muttered, but Bowser heard.

"WHAT!!!" he screamed, "YOU IDIOT!!! I FINALLY GET A CRYSTAL STAR AND YOU LET SOME MANGY YOSHI TAKE IT!!!!!!!!"

Kammy nodded, wishing she was anywhere else but there, and she meant _anywhere_.

"STUPID OLD HAG!!! I'M NEVER HIRING ANYONE OLDER THAN ME AGAIN! TEENAGERS FOREVER!"

Kammy said nothing.


	2. To the Amethyst Star We Go

Chapter 1: Over the Lake, and Through the Wormhole, to the Amethyst Star We Go.

Twilight Town

"An eighth Crystal Star? Hard to believe it… I mean, Caw! Caw! Caw!" said one of the crows in Twilight Town as Mario and Company passed by.

"This way," said Vivian, leading the group to a city exit they'd never seen before.

"Whoa!" exclaimed G-Yo; "I've never seen that exit before!"

"Yeah, Astroville is a pretty exclusive city; they don't want a lot of foreigners tromping around and littering the town, so they opted to hide the road in the shadows," explained Vivian. The walk was pretty uneventful; there weren't even any Crayzee Dayzees on the moonlit path. Eventually they reached a huge lake; Astroville lay sparkling on an island in the middle of the water.

"Wow! It's soooo pretty!" gasped Goombella in awe.

"Yeah, we're lucky we came now, it's not quite as picturesque during the day," said Vivian.

They walked across the massive Golden-Gated Bridge to the town. "Let's-a-rest for the night before we-a-use the catapult," said Mario. Since the group was on a fact-finding mission and not a quest to save Peach, the plumber was actually taking his time instead of rushing through everything like he usually does.

"Won't we need to get permission to use the catapult first?" whined Koops.

"Don't worry about it! No one would deny The Great Gonzales a ride!" said G-Yo. With that, they headed to the Astroville Constellation Hotel, passing various Astroville landmarks on the way. These included the planetarium, a big clock tower and the giant catapult itself.

The Astroville Constellation Hotel

"Welcome to the Constellation Hotel. Are you staying here on this starlit night?" asked the receptionist.

"Yes. A room for-a-eight please," said Mario.

"Yes sir, that'll be 50 coins."

"Mamma-Mia!"

"Hey lady! Don't you recognize The Great Gonzales, he's-" began G-Yo before Vivian hurriedly covered his mouth, making sure his attitude didn't get the group kicked out.

"Don't worry honey," said Ms. Mowz, coming to a very worried, and very broke Mario's rescue, "I have more than enough!"

After paying for the night the group went upstairs and after walking all day long, every part member quickly fell asleep, even Vivian.

The Giant Catapult

The manager didn't recognize Mario (as himself or as The Great Gonzales), severely irking G-Yo. However, he did recognize Bobbery as one of General White's friends. Apparently the manager held the old Bob-Omb in high regards and was more than delighted to give his friends a free spin in the catapult.

So the group got strapped into a giant, hollow, boulder-like canister and loaded onto the catapult, around which a huge group had gathered, eager to see another gargantuan launching. "Uh, can we still back out of this?" asked Koops fearfully.

"If you could handle being blasted out of a cannon into space, you can handle this darling," said Flurrie reassuringly.

"But I _couldn't _handle being blasted into space, I soiled my favorite pants!"

"Ewwwww! T.M.I. Koops," groaned Goombella as the cowardly Koopa continued to whimper about the group's latest stunt.

Outside the canister, the manager was unaware of Koops' discomfort. "Ready guys?" he called to Mario and Company. Mario flashed him a thumb's up through the canister window and the manager gave the signal to fire the catapult, flinging the heroes into the air.

"Ahhhhh!" screamed the group as they whooshed through the sky, and into the wormhole. Their canister rocked and shook violently before exiting the wormhole and smashing into the ground with a massive 'crunch!'

The Nega-Realm

The group quickly got out of the canister and half of the party were violently ill. When she had gotten control of her stomach, Goombella curiously looked around. "I've never seen this place before," she said, taking in the dark and fog-filled surroundings.

"Yeah, the orange sky is creepy," said Vivian, looking up into the starless night.

"As are the land features, it looks as if we have been flung into a destroyed city," mused Flurrie, also looking around.

"And worst of all, there isn't one piece of treasure lying around, not one!" cried Ms. Mowz after sniffing the air.

"Where are-a-we?" asked Mario bluntly, and, to everyone's surprise, he got an answer.

"This is the Nega-Realm. Well, at least as far as you out-worlders are concerned," growled a low and strangely familiar voice from the shadows.

"Who are-a-you?" demanded Mario, slowly a figure became visible through the fog, as he got closer more featured became visible: yellow scales, a large green, spiked shell, fiery red hair and gleaming white claws.

"Bowser!" exclaimed Mario as his archenemy stepped into the clearing.

"I guess you know the 'me' from your dimension," said Nega-Bowser, smirking.

"You bet he know you: you're, like, always kidnapping Peach you big brute!" piped up Goombella.

"What? I don't even like fruit, why would I steal your peaches?"

"Peach is a princess; you've never heard of her?" inquired Flurrie.

"Nope, the only royalty I know around here is Shadow Yoshi, and his family, but they don't even use big fancy titles," said Nega-Bowser.

"You mean, you're not the King of the Koopas?" asked Vivian, shocked.

"Whoa! I'm a king in you're reality? Cool!" said Nega-Bowser, staring off into the distance with a small grin on his face.

"Yeah, whatever, where's the Amethyst Star!?!" hollered G-Yo, hopping out from behind the catapult canister.

"Ahhh! A Yoshi!" cried Nega-Bowser, jumping back in fear.

"What!?! You're afraid of me? Awesome! Roar! I'm gonna get you!" bellowed G-Yo, running towards the cowering Dragon-Koopa.

"G-YO! Cut it out!" said Vivian, blocking his path before turning to Nega-Bowser who was obviously getting ready to bolt, "don't mind him, please, we need you're help."

"Yes, sweetie, we're looking for a treasure; it's a beautiful purple, Crystal Star and our map indicated that it was beyond the wormhole," said Ms. Mowz, "have you seen it?"

"Uh, actually, yeah I have," said Nega-Bowser, still eyeing G-Yo wearily, "Shadow Yoshi brought it to his palace."

"Wait a second," interrupted Koops, "I'd still like to know more about this 'Nega-Realm', like why are Yoshis so feared, for one?"

"Hmmm, well, a Nega-Realm is a dimension that is practically opposite of another, every reality has one," began Nega-Bowser, "I assume Yoshis are nice, passive creatures in your reality, despite your Yoshis aggressiveness…" G-Yo snorted. Nega-Bowser paused fearfully for a second but continued, "er, because in this world, Yoshis are evil and violent and their ruthless leader has run the land into ruin and despair. Unless you're a Yoshi, Birdo or some other dinosaur cousin of theirs, they'll make your life miserable – take it from me, I know."

"Awww, that's terrible," said Vivian, patting Nega-Bowser on the arm, he smiled a little, before becoming somber once again.

"It's bad for you guys too, 'cause Shadow Yoshi has got that star of yours."

"What!" exclaimed the party (except Mario, who said, "Mamma-Mia").

"On the plus-side, I'm pretty sure Shadow Yoshi's back in your dimension, so you'll only have to deal with three of his kids in the palace," said Nega-Bowser, pointing to a sinister-looking building off in the distance, barely visible through the fog.

"Well, thanks-a-Bowser, now guys, lets-a-go!" said Mario, heading out of the clearing towards the palace.

"Wait!" called Vivian, she then turned to Nega-Bowser, "would you like to come too?"

"Uh, thanks for the offer, but I'd rather live," said Nega-Bowser, slowly turning around to leave.

"Oh, that's okay, well bye," said Vivian, at the retreating Dragon-Koopa.

"Good luck!" called Nega-Bowser over his shoulder, then he was swallowed up by the fog once more.

Shadow Yoshi's Palace

G-Yo confidently walked up to the Reznor guards, dragging the rest of the party behind him in chains. "I caught these punks spraying anti-Yoshi graffiti over by the old-uh-hotel!" he said, puffing out his little chest proudly.

The guards shrugged and opened the door, letting the group through into the dimly lit fortress. G-Yo led his 'captives' to an empty room, where they quickly ripped off their bonds and quietly opened a nearby air vent.

"Good thing the Nega-Realm creatures still appreciate good air quality," whispered Goombella to Koops as they hopped into the vent.

"Yeah, lucky us," moaned Koops, he wished he was back home with Koopie Koo, or even wandering around with Nega-Bowser – just not here, crawling around some big, super-creepy palace.

"Oh my," remarked Flurrie, "this place is more ghastly than the Palace of Shadow and Creepy Steeple put together."

"Indubitably," agreed Bobbery.

The group eventually came across a grate, through which purple light was streaming. "This-a-must be it!" said Mario, jiggling the metal bars out of their frame with his plumber skills. And sure enough, he was right; below them was the Amethyst Star!

"I'll get it honey!" said Ms. Mowz, jumping down into the room. However, just as she neared the Star, a huge green tongue shot out of the darkness and snatched her away! "Help!" she screamed and the rest of the party quickly jumped down to her aid only to find three young, dark purple Yoshis smirking sinisterly at them.

"Hi! My name's Brandy," said the centre Yoshi; she had dark blond hair tied back in a pony tail, and wore glimmering blue lipstick and nail-polish, with trendy, designer pants, black leather gloves and platform shoes finishing off her look (and Mario thought Wendy O. Koopa was too appearance-obsessed). "And these are my brothers, Randy and Andy," she said, indicating to the male Yoshis to her left and right (respectively). Randy snarled violently, baring his razor-sharp teeth, his claws were also sharp-looking, as were the spikes on his cleats. Andy, on the other hand, seemed too more about defense rather than offence, he wore a helmet, steel-toed boots and thick gloves with metal fingertips. But the most disturbing thing about Andy was that there was a heart-shaped mouse-tail sticking out of his mouth.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Flurrie, "he ate Ms. Mowz!"

"Chill out," said Brandy, "he hasn't swallowed her yet, and us Yoshis don't chew our food."

"_I_ beg to differ," said Randy, gnashing his teeth menacingly.

"You will-a-release our-a-friend now, or else!" threatened Mario.

Brandy was not scared, "make me."

"Alright, you-a-asked for it, lets-a-go!" With that, Mario and his friends jumped the Yoshi Kids.

It was a long and viscous battle, but Mario's team came out victorious, and G-Yo quickly pulled Ms. Mowz out of the unconscious Andy's mouth. "Oh, thank you sweetie!" she said, kissing him on the cheek, making the dark blue Yoshi blush bright red."

Mario stepped up and took the Amethyst Star off its stand, before turning and running out of the room with the others. They fought many baddies on their way out of the palace, and their problems weren't over once they got out into the surrounding ruins and back to their catapult capsule.

"Wait!" called Goombella as the others scrambled to get into the container, "how are we going to get that back through the wormhole?"

The others' faces paled: they hadn't thought of that, suddenly a large figure leapt out of the shadows, "I've got a way!" roared Nega-Bowser.

"Yay!" cheered the others.

Nega-Bowser and the others quickly hauled the capsule up a large diagonal pillar that was situated right under the wormhole. As they neared the vortex the wind became violent and Mario had to hold onto his hat tightly to prevent it from blowing away. Bowser had everyone clamber into the capsule so he could throw it into the wormhole and send them back to their reality.

"But what about you?" said Vivian, concerned about her new friend.

"I'll be alright. If a bumbling plumber can overthrow me in another dimension, than I should be able to overthrow a power-crazed Yoshi in this one!" said Nega-Bowser optimistically (on the way up the pillar, the others had told him about Mario's exploits 'back home').

Vivian nodded sadly, and gave Nega-Bowser a big hug before following the others into the capsule, closing it behind her. With a grunt Nega-Bowser lifted the container into the air and threw it with all his might into the wormhole where it was sucked away, and disappeared.

Nega-Bowser smiled and jumped down the pillar, thoughts of a rebellion knocking about in his head.

Petalburg

"Ahhhh!" screamed the heroes as the catapult capsule once again rocketed through the wormhole, however, when they came out the other end, they only had enough momentum to make it to Petalburg before hitting the ground.

"Urghh," moaned Koops as he and the others crawled out of the capsule, most of them were once again suffering from stomach-turning motion sickness.

"Koops!" said his father, Koopley, walking over to the group, "Koopie Koo called from Rogueport and said you were off on another adventure, I see she was right!"

Koops smiled sheepishly, but Mario broke up the reunion. "Let's-a-go back to-a-Rogueport now, I-a-want to show-a-Peach the Amethyst Star!"

"Great idea Mario," said Koops, before thinking to himself, _I'd like to see my girlfriend again too…_

So the group set off, however when they got to Rogueport they were met by a very anxious Toadsworth with very bad news.

"Peach has been kidnapped!"

**Peach Interlude #2**

Somewhere in the Sky

"Help Mario! HELP!!!" screamed Peach as she was carried closer and closer to the giant swirling wormhole by a large black and purple skinned Yoshi.

There she had been, playing cards with Luigi and Toadsworth in the Rogueport Inn when the vicious creature had smashed through the window. Luigi had promptly fainted at the sight of the sight of the large, spike-covered, bat-winged Yoshi. Toadsworth had tried to fight but the monster had quickly swapped him aside with his long, slimy green tongue. He had then turned his glowing red eyes at Peach, who also tried to fight.

She had been more successful than her aide-de-camp, using her trusty frying pan to beat at the cleat-wearing Yoshi, but he managed to rip it out of her hands and swallow it whole. He then grabbed the princess and flew away, as the town's populace looked on fearfully.

"HEEEEELLLLLLLP!!!!!!!! MMMMMAAAARRRRRIIIIOOOOOO!!!!!!!!" she tried again, but her heroic plumber was no where to be found.

"Hehehe, you're precious Mario wont be saving you today Peachy; why, it's more than likely that he's already dead," said the Yoshi cruelly.

Peach opened her mouth to retaliate, but at that moment she and her captor entered the wormhole, "AHHHHHH!!!!!" she screamed, just as loudly as Mario and his friends had when they went through the vortex. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, it was over, and Peach opened her eyes to see an eerie, shadowy, world, with an even eerier orange sky above it.

The Yoshi quickly brought Peach to a sinister-looking palace and dropped her unceremoniously onto the carpeted floor in front of a tarnished silver throne. As she was apprehended by Yoshi guards, their flying leader landed on the throne and sat down, regarding her coolly.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" demanded Peach.

"I am Shadow Yoshi, ruler of this world, and soon, of your world too!" he said, before laughing more sinisterly than Bowser could even dream of doing.

"What do you mean, 'this world'?" asked Peach.

"Never you mind, human, all that matters is that now you too are out of the picture," he once again filled the room with his spine-tingling cackling.

Suddenly the door opened to reveal three, young Yoshis, all looking similar to Shadow Yoshi, but without wings. The female one (Brandy) stepped forward and said bitterly, "Mario and his gang stole the Amethyst Star, and we have reason to believe they managed to bring it back to their dimension."

"You disappoint me kids, Sandy would never have let me down," said Shadow Yoshi. Peach was surprised: whenever she saw Bowser being informed of Mario's triumphs he always flew into a rage, this guy was just laying the guilt trip on what Peach suspected were his children.

"Well, she _is_ coming back from vacation **soon**," said one of the male Yoshis (Andy).

"Yes," said his father, turning back to Peach, "but this princess will **not** be coming back from hers."

"What!" exclaimed Peach fearfully, "what do you want with me, you aren't going to use me to be a host for some ancient demon are you?"

"No, the spirits I'm after won't require you, but, you see, your healing skills are valuable, and any advantage for Mario is a disadvantage to us. And besides, now Mario will think he needs to collect all the other Crystal Stars to save you, and do our dirty work for us."

_Oh no! Not another trap, not another setup!_ thought Peach anxiously as Shadow Yoshi let out another sinister laugh (this time with his children chortling along as well).

"Now," said Shadow Yoshi, "throw the princess in the tower dungeon!"

"Nooooo!," shouted Peach, struggling as the guards hauled her away from their (once again) sinisterly laughing Yoshi leader.

**Bowser Interlude #2**

Bowser's Castle

Bowser was still upset about Kammy letting the Amethyst Star get stolen and was grumbling about it everywhere he went.

"Please Your Unforgivingness," pleaded Kammy, "It wasn't all my fault, you shouldn't have told that newspaper about finding it."

Bowser rounded on her, "A, Morton told them, not me. B, I let him do that because publicity is good for my image – people haven't been taking me seriously lately, especially after those alien guys kidnapped Peach instead of me last time!"

"Uh, speaking of Peach-" began Kammy.

"C," continued Bowser, ignoring his advisor, "since when do **you** try to blame **your** mistakes on **me**? I though you were supposed to be loyal as a Chain-Chomp! Or were you just lying when you said that?"

"I wasn't lying, Your Harshness!"

"Fine! Whatever!" said Bowser, "at least finding it will be easy! I heard Mario was showing off his newly-marked magic map to an entire crowd over in Rogueport; we'll just demand answers from the populace about the whereabouts of the Amethyst Star on the map and then go get it! Gwa ha ha!"

"Uh, what about the bla-" began Kammy, but once again, Bowser cut her off.

"Enough! Now, on to Rogueport!"

"But your Hastiness! There's something you should know!" said Kammy, hurrying after her King who was already heading off to the Clown Car's hanger.

"Grrrr, this better not be bad news," growled Bowser, glaring at Kammy who stopped in her tracks and once again looked uneasily at the floor.

"Well, uh you see, uh."

"Spit it out!"

"Peach has… beencapturedbytheblackYoshi," blurted out Kammy.

"WHAT!!!!!!" screamed Bowser, making all the guards in the corridor jump, "PEACH HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY SOMEONE OTHER THAN ME AGAIN!!!!!!"

Kammy nodded, wishing she could melt through the floor and escape the King's wrath without being severely damaged for it later.

"GRRRRRRRRR!!!!! I **HATE** THAT BLACK YOSHI!!! **I**! **HATE**! **IT**!!!!!"


	3. Yo Ho Ho and a 9th Crystal Star!

Chapter 2: Yo Ho Ho and a 9th Crystal Star!

Rogueport Inn

Mario and Co., Luigi, and Toadsworth surveyed Peach's room, being careful not to cut their feet on the broken shards of glass (except Flurrie, who didn't have feet).

"Yeah, I'm sure of it," said Luigi, still a bit shaky from the attack, "it was a big old black, winged Yoshi with glowing red eyes!"

"It must've been Shadow Yoshi! That no good-" began G-Yo, before Vivian once again stopped him from spinning off into a childish rage (which wouldn't have been overly inappropriate as he _was_ a child).

"Great," moaned Koops, "what do we do now?"

"We-a-take the Amethyst Star to the Thousand-Year Door, and-a-use its power to rescue Peach!" said Mario.

"But sweetie, what if the Amethyst Star is not the last one?" asked Ms. Mowz.

"Then we collect the rest too, lassie," said Bobbery.

"Uh, I don't think that's such a great idea guys," said Goombella, "last time we did that, it was like, a set up and Peach got possessed and was totally-"

"But it all turned out okay, just like any good theatrical work," said Flurrie.

"What about tragedies?" nit-picked Koops.

"It doesn't-a-matter! We're-a-going to the Thousand-Year Door right-a-now!" said Mario impatiently, marching out of the room, followed by his party, a still fretful Toadsworth, and Luigi.

The Thousand-Year Door Chamber

There wasn't quite as large of a crowd this time, however Koopie Koo was still in town, and Koops was quite happy to see her again.

When Mario climbed up to the pedestal there was another light show and once again the mapped was remarked, showing the location of the 9th Crystal Star, West of Keelhaul Key, in the middle of the ocean!

"All right, let's-a-go!" exclaimed Mario. Before he and the others rushed out, he turned to Luigi and asked if he wanted to come along too.

"No thanks bro." said Luigi, "but, if you need me just send me an e-mail and I'll come over right away!"

Not entirely convinced of his brother's gutsier-than-usual promise, Mario and Co. continued on their way to Rougeport Docks, where Cortez agreed to give them a ride.

On the way he explained that the yellow Topaz Star appeared to have sunk to the deepest part of the ocean, the home of his old friend Davey Jones. Unfortunately, he and Jones hadn't kept in contact for centuries and Cortez wasn't sure how he would react to a bunch of 'weirdoes' showing up in his undersea castle. Mario, however assured him they'd be fine before he and the rest of his party members dived into the cold water (where they could still breath, thanks to the really convenient magic of the Mushroom World).

Later at the Bottom of the Ocean

After a few hours of blooper- and cheep-cheep-filled swimming, the group made it to the bottom, where, after a few more minutes of searching, they found Davey Jones' seaweed-covered castle. After some puzzles and other antics in the maze-like citadel, the heroes came across a large, treasure-filled room, not unlike Cortez's quarters.

"Arrrr!" growled a voice from inside the pile of gold, "who goes there, yee scalawags!" Slowly, a large skeletal figure rose out of the treasure, it looked just like Cortez, but with glowing green eyes, instead of blue.

"Umm, we're here to retrieve the Topaz Star," said Vivian shakily.

"Arr, steal my treasure? Die! And may yee bones rest in me locker for eternity!" shouted Davey Jones, before attacking the group.

After a long and difficult battle, Jones pulled back and started laughing heartily (like Mr. Krabbs), "Ar, ararararar, I haven't had so much fun in years, you're all right kids, ar, ararararar."

"Wait a minute, that was all done for your personal enjoyment? Grrr, why you no good-" started G-Yo, before Flurrie and Vivian swam over and closed his mouth.

"Arr, I can see why ye wouldn't be too happy about that, well, I'd love to help ye but I don't have that star of yours; the Kraken does though."

"The what!?!" cried Koops, worried.

"The Kraken, a giant sea monster; think Gooper Blooper mixed with Eely Mouth," said Goombella, reading her tattle log.

"Do I have to?" moaned Koops.

"Enough, let's-a-go fight the-a-monster and get that Star so we can save-a-Peach!" said Mario, already swimming out of the room.

"Hold up there m'boy," called Bobbery, "we don't know where the Kraken is, lad!"

"Well I do," said Jones, "his cave's just outside me castle."

"Thank you Mr. Jones," said Vivian politely.

"Ah please miss, call me Davey, now run along, oh and say 'hi' to Cortez for me."

"How'd you know we know Cortez?" asked Koops wearily.

"I recognized his ship floating up at the surface with me underwater telescope," said Jones, before letting out another slew of pirate laughter.

The Kraken's Cave

The group floated at the cave entrance staring apprehensively into the long, dark tunnel. "I-a-wish Luigi was here with his-a-flashlight," said Mario.

"Why don't you, like, e-mail him?" asked Goombella.

Mario shook his head, "he wouldn't-a-come."

"You don't give your brother enough credit; just like directors in showbiz," remarked Flurrie.

After another minute or so of floating around, Bobbery swam foreword and turned to face his comrades.

"My friends, it has become apparent that I will have to go in alone."

"No Bobbery! We'll all go sweetie!" said Ms. Mowz, staring to swim forward.

"Thanks for the offer lass, but I need to do this alone. After hearing so many sea tales, and having seen so many ships and sailors swallowed up by the Kraken, I must finish it off by my self, for the honor of sailors everywhere!"

"That's a bad idea," said Koops, but Bobbery wouldn't hear of it. After a few more minutes of pointless arguing, Mario gave in, and forced the others to let Bobbery go on alone.

"Thank you; now my friends, farewell!" said Bobbery before swimming into the black cave, disappearing from sight.

He swam on through the darkness, using his Bob-omb nightvision to navigate deeper and deeper into the abyss. He cautiously swam around bend after bend, and eventually heard long, creepy groans and gurgles up ahead.

He rounded the last bend and in front of him lay the Kraken! It's long black tentacles waved around in the darkness like no Blooper Bobbery had ever seen, he resisted the urge to flee and charged at the beast.

The Kraken roared, an unearthly sound filled the chamber and echoed through the cave, even the others heard it.

Bobbery paused, but not out of fear. When the creature had its mouth open, Bobbery could see a faint yellow glow: the Kraken had eaten the Topaz Star! Bobbery knew what he had to do. He lit his fuse and started towards the monster once again. The faint red glow surprised the Kraken and it roared again, just as Bobbery had expected. He used every last ounce of strength and propelled himself through the water, and into the Kraken's mouth! The monster closed it in surprise, and sat there dumbly for a moment, then, "KABOOM!!!!!!" Bobbery exploded inside the Kraken's stomach!

Outside, Mario and the others heard the explosion, and quickly swam into the tunnel, not willing to let their friend suffer an unthinkable fate. However, by the time the group navigated their way to the end of the cave, Bobbery was gone.

The Kraken had been blown to bits, what was left of it was smeared on the chamber walls or had floated away through the roof of the cave, which had also been blown away.

In the middle of the carnage, the Topaz Star lay shimmering, illuminated by the few rays of sunlight that had permeated the great depths. However, no matter how thoroughly they searched, Bobbery was nowhere to be found.

**Peach Interlude #3**

Shadow Yoshi's Palace

Peach sighed; she had been cooped up in the tower dungeon for hours and there was no hope of escape. No Star Kids, no love-struck computers, nothing. The small window was barred and the heavy metal door was bolted shut. And the furniture would do her no good: an uncomfortable cot, a wooden stool and a splintery table. The Yoshi guards had brought her some 'food', but Peach had refused to touch the brown and green goo, so it lay steaming and occasionally wiggling in its bowl on the table.

Peach sighed again, _how in the world - or shadow world or whatever – is Mario going to save me?_ She wondered. Suddenly Peach was roused from her musings by scraping and panting noises coming from the window.

She looked over at it but didn't see anything but the orange sky, so she pushed over the stool and stepped onto it, peering over the edge of the window sill to see… Bowser peering right back at her.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Peach, jumping back from the window and falling onto the cold, stone floor.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Nega-Bowser, however he didn't let go of the ledge, being a few hundred feet up in the air and all.

"Bowser! Wha- What are you doing here? Are-are you going to save-er-kidnap me?" said Peach, even if it was Bowser, she'd rather be with the King of the Koopas than the King of the evil Yoshis, or whatever Shadow Yoshi called himself.

"Hugh, oh you much be Peaches," said Nega-Bowser, smiling amiably.

"Peaches?" said Peach, raising an eyebrow; she was a bit creeped out by Bowser's unusual demeanor.

"Yeah, your friends told me all about you, and how the other me's always kidnapping you; looks like Shadow Yoshi beat 'me' to the punch, though," said Nega-Bowser, looking down at Peach.

_Friends? Mario!_ thought Peach, but she was still confused, "what do you mean 'other me'?"

"Uh, well ya see, for every reality there is an equal and opposite reality," began Nega-Bowser.

"Don't you mean action and reaction?"

"No! _Realities_ – different dimensions."

"Oookaaayyy…"

"Urgh, look, as far as you're concerned this is the Nega-Realm: the dimension in which everything is the opposite as it is in your dimension – your Mushroom World."

"Then why aren't we floating away?"

"By 'everything' I don't mean _everything_; gravity, and magic, and TV are all the same, but 'The Grand Scheme of Things' is reversed."

"So that's why the Yoshis are evil…"

"And why I'm good."

"But-" began Peach, suddenly she heard the door locks clicking behind her. "Quick! Someone's coming! Get away from the window!" she hissed, pushing the stool back to the table, before jumping silently onto the cot and pretending to sleep.

A brown Birdo guard eventually entered the room and looked around for a second, before going over and picking up the bowl, slurping up a large portion of the sludge with a satisfied 'Honk!' It then turned and left the room, locking the door behind itself.

Peach sighed with relief and looked to the window, but Nega-Bowser was gone.

**Bowser Interlude #3**

Rogueport Plaza

"Attention!" shouted Bowser from atop the hangman's platform, "I, King Bowser Koopa am seeking answers to the whereabouts of the 8th Crystal Star!" A few passers by looked at him uninterestedly, but the rest just ignored him like any other loony they encountered (and there were a great deal of loonies in Rogueport).

Bowser growled and stomped down from the platform to Kammy who was quick to reassure him (or risk being the target of his rage) "don't worry Your Disregardedness, we'll just ask around like normal, curious townsfolk."

"But I'm **not** a normal, curious townsfolk!" roared Bowser, stomping away from his advisor, "I'm the King of the Koopas! Doesn't anyone in this stupid town recognize my all-powerful self?"

"I do," said a silky, female voice from behind the angry villain.

Bowser turned around, and to his horror found himself staring down at none other than Toodles, "ahhh! You're that psycho Toad who wanted to saw off my horns!"

"Oh yes!" said Toodles, "in fact, the only reason I'm here in this awful town was to get some from Don Pianta, but here you are! And let me just say, I'm willing to pay top dollar for a couple Dragon-Koopa horns in as fine a condition as yours. Soooo, name your price!"

"No way!" shouted Bowser, before turning and running away, Toodles, however went after him.

"I will not take 'no' for an answer!" she called. On the other side of the square, Kammy watched the chase, torn between amusement and despair. As funny as it was watching the big strong King of the Koopas running away from a little gold-digging Toad woman, when he eventually got away from her, he was certainly going to pin the whole affair of Kammy, like every other time something like that happened.

"Why so glum?" asked a friendly voice beside Kammy, the old witch turned to see a female Koopa Troopa with a blonde pony tail and purple sweatbands (Koopie-Koo).

"Oh," she sighed, "nothing, It's just my master and I have been having no luck tracking down the information we need, and he's going to make me suffer for it."

"Oh, maybe I can help," said the girl kindly.

"Well, we're looking for the 8th Crystal Star, you wouldn't happen to know where it is?"

"Oh, actually I do: Mario already found it."

"What!" exclaimed Kammy, _Bowser is not going to be happy_.

"And he, and my boyfriend Koops, and their friends are out searching for the 9th one right now."

"There's more? Where?" said Kammy, hoping for some good news for a change.

"Well, I'm not sure if the Topaz Star's the last one or not, but I do know it's at the bottom of the ocean, West of Keelhaul Key."

"Oh! Thank you so much girlie!" said Kammy before rushing off.

_Hmmm_, thought Koopie Koo, _maybe I shouldn't tell crazy old ladies about my boyfriend's adventures_…

Meanwhile, Kammy rushed up to Bowser, who was hiding from Toodles in an alley. "Tell me you've got the information, or you're toast!" he growled.

"Well your Crabbiness," said Kammy, "Mario got the 8th star, but there's a 9th one at the bottom of the ocean."

"Great!" said Bowser, calling down his mind-powered Clown Car, unfortunately for him, Toodles saw the flying machine and came running over.

"Don't goooo! I neeeed you hoooorns!" she cried.

"Later!" said Bowser to Kammy before jumping into the helicopter and speeding away.

"Wait! Your Hornyness! You don't know where in the ocean the star is!" called Kammy, once again, missing the double entente of her latest title.

"NEVER CALL ME THAT AGAIN" bellowed Bowser from high in the sky, but he didn't come back or even slow down, to Kammy's great annoyance.

"Fine, _your Irritatingness_," muttered Kammy, "I'll just stay here, and wait for Mario to bring back that Star, since there's no way you are."

Toodles looked at her inquisitively and asked, "do you know him?"

"Unfortunately," sighed Kammy.

"Oh, how much would I have to pay him to get him to give me his horns?"

Kammy stared at her.

"Oh _I_ see…" said Toodles, smiling knowingly at the old Magikoopa, "how much do **you** want for getting me his horns?"

Kammy slowly started inching away from the rich Toad, who took no notice.

"Oh and I don't care if you have his consent, or if you saw them off in his sleep, whatever works for you."

Kammy turned tail and ran.

Toodles followed her, "wait! I'll make it worth your while! Money is no object!"

_Now I know why Bowser was so keen on getting out of here_ thought Kammy, as she jumped down a sewer pipe, escaping the insane Toad woman.


	4. More Dungeons, More Dragons

Chapter 3: More Dungeons, More Dragons

The Ocean

Vivian lifted the sorrowful party up to the surface, stretching her purple 'tail' longer and longer. Nobody could believe Bobbery was gone; the Topaz Star didn't come close to lightening the mood.

They eventually broke the surface and gasped and sputtered as their watery lungs were exposed to empty air. Nearby, Cortez's ship was moored, but it quickly turned and sailed towards the group.

They climbed aboard with heavy hearts and Cortez greeted them cheerfully, "arrr me hearties, why the long faces? Ye should be celebrating."

"But Bobbery…" began Goombella tearfully, "he-"

"Is right here!" boomed a voice from up in the crow's nest.

The group looked up to see the familiar Bob-Omb, no worse for the wear. "Bobbery!" they cried, he jumped down to them laughing.

"But how did you escape?" asked Flurrie, "we heard a dreadful explosion, and feared you had sacrificed yourself for the good of the show! – I mean, for us!"

"I'm a Bob-omb, madam," said Bobbery, "If we died each time we blew up, we'd be a very scarce race now wouldn't we?"

The group continued to talk and make merry on their way back to Rogueport, where after saying farewell to Cortez, they were on their way to the Thousand-Year Door.

The Thousand-Year Door Chamber

Koopie Koo was there, as was Luigi and a fair number of townspeople.

"Hey bro.!" said Luigi as Koops ran over to his girlfriend, "you'll never believed what happened! There was this giant dragon! And this Toad headhuntress started chasing him, trying to chop off his head! Eventually he flew away with a mighty 'roar'! Isn't that exciting?"

Mario was not impressed, "stop-a-making up stories Weegie."

"I'm not! Just ask Koopie Koo, she was there!"

Mario shrugged and stepped up to the platform, and another lightshow commenced. This time, the 10th (Silver) Star appeared inside a volcano, which appeared to the right of Hooktail's Castle, beneath the picture of the wormhole.

The people gathered 'round. "Oooh!" said Goombella, "that's Blaarg Volcano! It's really dangerous!"

"No, it's extinct!" said Koops, who had often looked to it in fear as a boy in Petalburg, before his adventurous father assured him it would never pose a threat to the young Koopa.

"It's still full of monsters," retaliated Goombella.

The group was so busy talking, they didn't notice Kammy peering at the map behind them, before flying away, cackling under her breath. However, Koopie Koo saw her.

"Hey! That's the same old woman from before!" she exclaimed, but when the group looked, the old Magikoopa was gone.

Mario shrugged and once again set right off on his latest quest, having gotten a good night's sleep on the trip back from Davey Jones' Castle. Koopie Koo accompanied them, since they were heading through Petalburg, and she needed to go home anyway.

Blaarg Volcano

After saying goodbye to Koopie Koo in Petalburg, and navigating the tediously maze-like forest, the group reached the dormant volcano. Unlike with the Kraken's Cave, the group walked right in; they were happy to find that the cave was illuminated by strange glowing mushrooms, and a lava pit here and there.

"I thought you said it was extinct?" commented Vivian to Koops.

"Well, I guess Dad lied… _Again_. He's always making reality seem safer than it is," whimpered Koops.

"Jeez, stop with the whining, I'm still a baby and you don't see me crying," said G-Yo, haughtily.

"Hey," said Goombella, reading her tattlelog, "Yoshis aren't supposed to stay young for extended periods of time: after eating a few enemies they grow to full size in no time, and some even hatch as adults."

"Well, I didn't hatch as an adult, and Mario keeps making me spit the enemies back out," said G-Yo, shooting Mario a dirty look; the plumber, however, took no notice.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," said Vivian, who had never liked Yoshi eating habits.

"It _is_ a bad thing," huffed G-Yo, "After I became the Glitzville Champ I got ta go into that neato locker room, and you should see the food in _Yoshi Monthly_, there's Fire Flower Soup, Bean Fruit Cocktail, Barbecued Goomba-"

"WHAT!?!" shouted Goombella.

"Uh, but don't worry, I'd never eat _that_," said G-Yo hurriedly as the Goomba girl glared at him, "but, I'd still like to eat something that'll make me grow…"

They rounded a bend and found themselves faced with a whole heard of baby Blaargs, milling about in a small pool of lava. "Well sweetie," said Ms. Mowz to G-Yo, "eat away."

"Uh," he said, backing away, "no way! _Adult_ Yoshis don't even eat Blaargs!"

"Aww, scared?" asked Koops.

"You're one to talk!" snapped G-Yo.

"Enough!" shouted Mario marching towards the pool, "let's-a-get this over with!"

"Wait!" shouted Vivian, "you're not going to hurt those innocent little babies are you?"

"They are not-a-little, and they're in our-a-way!" said Mario, brushing past the shadow girl, leaping onto the nearest Blaarg; the others followed suit while Vivian watched disapprovingly from the shore. _Mario is so inconsiderate sometimes_, she thought, _maybe having a crush on him isn't all it's cracked-up to be_.

After pulverizing the infants – which swam away crying – the group continued on, battling many more young Blaargs, but surprisingly, no adults. "I wonder if we're in some kind of nursery?" wondered Goombella aloud.

Mario ignored her and beat away another infant, 'rounding the bend into a large chamber, with a large lava pool at the bottom. The group looked down and saw hundreds of baby Blaargs in the pool, some were the same ages as the ones they had encountered in the caves, but many more looked like nothing more than wriggling little worms.

Vivian also noticed that many of the older Blaargs were injured, thanks to her friends.

Suddenly the group was roused out of their observations by a bone-chilling roar. Out of the lava rose a gigantic Blaarg; she stood up and looked down at the heroes, her small forearms waving in the air, her hands clenched into balls.

"You!" she cried, "you are the ones responsible for hurting my children! After we have raised young Blaarg here for years, you come along for no reason and attack? You will pay with your lives!"

"We have-a-beaten greater foes than you!" said Mario, "like Hooktail, and the Czar Dragon!"

"WHAT!" roared the Blaarg, "YOU were the ones who killed my mate! You have no idea what it's like being the widowed Queen of the Blaargs, living out your life alone! DIE!!!!"

After another long and difficult battle, Mario and his friends emerged victorious. "Where's the-a-Silver Star?" demanded Mario, at the semi-conscious Blaarg Queen.

"Urgh, if I tell you, do you promise to leave, and never come back and hurt my children again?" she asked groggily.

"Of course!" promised Vivian, still sorry about her friends' actions.

The Queen nodded and pointed to a ledge at the other side of the chamber, on it sat a treasure chest, "there," she said.

"Great," moaned Koops, "how are we going to get over there?"

Suddenly a pink and purple streak shot out of the sky and landed beside the chest. "Mweh heh heh!" cackled Kammy, opening the chest and holding the glimmering Silver Star above her head (just like Mario with the Shine Sprites from _Super Mario Sunshine_), "King Bowser will be soooo pleased!"

"Give that back! You old hag!" shouted G-Yo as Flurrie struggled to keep him from lunging off their ledge towards the old Magikoopa.

"Never!" shouted Kammy, before taking to the skies on her bamboo broomstick, laughing joyfully and disappearing through the roof of the volcano.

"Oh noooooo!" said Mario.

Bowser's Castle

After going through Petalburg and scolding Koopley about lying to his son about the volcano, the group returned to Rogueport where they caught a boat back to the Greater Mushroom Kingdom (where Toad Town and those other places are). Mario's party members were very excited, many never having been out of the Rogueport Area of the kingdom.

After a good night's sleep at his house, Mario led the group across the Kingdom to Dark Land, saying 'hello' to many of his old party members along the way. They eventually reached the volcanic mountain region ("not _more_ volcanoes," moaned Koops) and made their way to Bowser's main castle, in the heart of Dark Land, fighting many baddies along the way (all of which G-Yo still refused to eat).

Inside there were more puzzles and more enemies; the group somehow made a wrong turn and ended up in a large tower Mario had never visited before.

"If you've been here so many times before, how did you get us lost?" said Vivian, who still hadn't forgiven Mario for hurting all those baby Blaarg.

"Maybe it's because he's never been accompanied by a bunch of nagging children," huffed Flurrie, tired of the constant bickering between the team members.

Mario once again ignored the dissention between his friends and opened a large pair of red doors, almost being blown away by the blast of noise that came out of the room.

The group stood in shock at what they saw before them, all eight Koopalings wreaking havoc in what appeared to be a playroom. The young Dragon-Koopas also froze and stared at the intruders. Then Roy, Morton Ludwig and Bowser Junior all jumped forward at the group, growling menacingly.

"Wait!" called their only sister Wendy, "Daddy told us not to get involved with Mario when he breaks in!"

"Yeah," added her rainbow-haired brother Lemmy, "He'll kill us!"

"If Mario doesn't, anyway," commented his bespectacled little brother Iggy.

"Zat's just because he doesn't vant us to get hurt again," said Ludwig, the oldest and wisest Koopaling.

"Yeah! And it doesn't look like Mario and his posse are going to back down anytime soon," said Morton Koopa Jr., the fast talking youngster.

"You bet we're not!" growled G-Yo at the much larger Koopaling.

"Yeah! We're-a-going to beat you into the ground, you-a-rotten brats!" said Mario, fiery hate burning in his eyes.

"Oh no," moaned Vivian, "not _more_ child abuse."

"Don't worry, Viv, these kids are as rotten as they come!" said Goombella.

"But-" began Vivian, as Mario lunged forwards at the Koopalings, all eight of which sprung into action.

It was a hectic battle; Koopalings and party members flew every which way. Koopa guards ran frantically into the room to help the Koopa Princes and Princess, but were always stopped dead in their tracks by Vivian, who still refused to damage the Koopalings directly.

Eventually Mario and his friends managed to knock out every last enemy, and stood triumphantly, surveying the disaster zone, throughout which lay unconscious Koopas, of various species. But their victory was short lived.

"WHAT!!!!!!!!" hollered Bowser from the doorway, flanked by Kammy, who was holding the Silver Star, guarding it from thievery. "MY CHILDREN!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY CHILDREN!!!!!!!! GRRRRRR, YOU'RE DEAD PLUMBER!!!!!!! **DEAD**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" With that, Bowser charged the group.

Despite the fact that the group was pretty tired, and that Kammy kept healing Bowser and herself, Mario and friends eventually emerged victorious. Snatching the Silver Star from Kammy's limp fingers, they high-tailed it out of Bowser's Castle.

They had just reached the main doors when another Dark Yoshi flew into sight. "You may have beaten my little sister and brothers, but you're not getting past me, Lord Sandy!" she said menacingly as her army of evil Nega-dinosaurs surrounded the doorway.

"Come on! We'll use a different exit sweeties!" said Ms. Mowz, turning around, only to see the entire Koopa Army marching towards them, blocking the group from escape.

"Hahaha!" laughed the lab coat-clad, safety goggle-wearing Yoshi girl. She wore a green flower in her short blonde hair, but it did nothing to add to her nonexistent beauty. She took to the air on her bat wings (like her father, Shadow Yoshi) and swooped towards the heroes. "Now it's time to take you back to your precious princess!" she called, but Mario nimbly jumped out of her line of flight.

She angled upwards and turned around growling, "guards! Seize them!"

But before the Nega-creatures could obey, a second authoritative voice boomed out, "No! **My** guards seize them!" Everyone turned to see a bruised and battered Bowser standing behind his troops, fire dancing in his eyes.

"Shove off Has-Been!" jeered Sandy, "these punks are mine!"

"Stupid Yoshi! I've been fighting Mario for years, if anyone's going to get him, it'll be me!" he bellowed.

"Never!" called Sandy, "guards, change of plans: get _Bowser_'s army!" The Nega-creatures obeyed and flooded past Mario and co., swarming Bowser and his troops.

"Noooo!" roared Bowser, jumping into the fray.

"Well, if nothing else, he's got stamina," remarked Goombella, to no one in particular.

"Now," said Sandy, "I'll finish you off myself." And she almost did; three battles in a row was very tiring, but Mario was able to handle it with his team. And, after another treacherous brawl, Mario and his friends won against Sandy, and were able to leave the still raging battle between the Koopas and Nega-creatures behind them.

**Peach Interlude #4**

Shadow Yoshi's Palace

Peach had a horrible few days and nights. She had been forced to eat the disgusting slop out of starvation, and found that it tasted worse than it looked. She was also very lonely; she even tried talking to that Birdo guard, but it never talked back. She hadn't had a good night sleep yet on that cot, and she was covered in dirt from head to heels from searching the room for some hidden escape root. How she wished there was a shower… or toilet paper.

Her ears suddenly picked up some familiar noises from the window. She jumped up and pushed the stool to the window, "Bowser!" she cried in relief at his friendly face, glad to finally have some company.

"Sorry I left so suddenly the other day," he said, "but I didn't want to get caught."

"I understand," said Peach, "but I do have some more questions."

"Fire away," said Nega-Bowser, more than happy to help.

"Well, I get the whole Nega-Realm thing, I guess, but what does Shadow Yoshi want with the Crystal Stars?"

"Well, I don't really know; everything I've learned about them was from Mario and his friends, but I suspect its because Shadow Yoshi wants to rule your world too."

"That's terrible!" exclaimed Peach, but she quickly calmed down, "don't worry, Mario will stop him – he always stops the bad guys."

"Yeah, well not around here," said Nega-Bowser glumly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been doing some digging, and I've learned that both the Nega-you, Mario, and Mario's brother are all petty thieves."

"What?" shouted Peach, Nega-Bowser winced at her shrill tone, Peach noticed, "oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell so loudly."

"It's okay, I was surprised when I found out the other me's a king."

Peach was silent for a minute and then asked, "Bowser, once Mario defeats Shadow Yoshi, what are you going to do? You're not going to live under his yolk forever are you?"

"No way!" exclaimed Nega-Bowser, "in fact, I'm planning a rebellion – me and all the other oppressed people. If a mangy plumber can save the world, so can I!"

Peach was surprised at his optimism, "that's great! But um, can I ask you a favor?"

"Anything."

"Can you get me outta here? The foods terrible and there's no personal hygiene."

"I can see," said Nega-Bowser, Peach looked down at herself; maybe the lack of a mirror was a good thing. "Well," continued Nega-Bowser, "I'll try. Stand back, Peaches!"

"It's Peach," she said jumping down, but she wasn't sure Nega-Bowser heard her as he breathed fire at the window bars, slashing at them with his claws and biting them at the same time. But as impressive as he looked, Nega-Bowser wasn't able to break the bars.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay, said Peach, climbing onto the stool again, "at least you tried."

"And I'll try again, I'm sure I can get some power tools from the Wario Brothers' charity; they'll do the trick for sure!" with that he started climbing down the wall.

"Wait!" called Peach, not wanting to be alone again.

"Sorry Peaches, but I've got to go – don't want to get caught y'know," and with that, Nega-Bowser disappeared from Peach's line of sight.

"It's Peach," sighed the princess, sitting down on the stool, and preparing for another boring, lonely night.

**Bowser Interlude #4**

Bowser's Castle

"Stupid! Stupid!!! STUPID YOSHIS!!!!!!!" growled Bowser as he stormed through his castle, "Stupid! Stupid!!! STUPID MARIO!!!!!!!"

Kammy came limping up behind him, "Your Defeatedness, the purple Yoshi girl got away from the Lakitus."

"Of course she did!" he muttered angrily, before entering the overused medical wing of the castle. "How are you kids doing?" he asked his eight children who were lodged in their own private ward, away from the hundreds of injured Koopa Troop members.

"We're okay," said Morton, always ready to chat, even when he had four broken bones and a concussion, "but, sorry we didn't get Mario."

The others all moaned and mumbled their own apologies but their father waved them off, "It's okay kids, but next time Mario bursts into your room, run away."

"Are you mad?" asked Larry fearfully.

"Of course not!" said Bowser, "now all of you, get to sleep: let that Magikoopa magic do its job!"

"Yes King Dad," they murmured in chorus, before they all drifted off to sleep. Bowser smiled and left the room, waving off the Magikoopa doctors' offers to heal his own wounds; Kammy had already taken care of most of them, and Bowser's own magic could do the rest. He'd rather have his troops fixed up ASAP anyway, so he could go kill Mario and those Dark Yoshis!

As they left the wing Bowser noticed Kammy grinning at him, "wheat is it, ya old hag?"

"Oh nothing, Your Paternalness," she said.

"Whatever, I've got a job for you," said Bowser, his staff was too short handed at the moment for him to put Kammy out of action as punishment for her sappiness. "I'm glad you got that Star for me – I was getting waterlogged out in the ocean – so, I want you to follow Mario, and steal the final Star once he gets it. But don't bring it back here, and make sure **he** knows your not coming back… I don't think the troops could handle it."

"Good plan, Your Deviousness, but how do you know there's only one Crystal Star left?" asked the old Magikoopa.

"Because," said Bowser, obviously proud of his deducing skills, "it would be the 11th star, and eleven rhymes with seven! Gwa ha ha!"

Kammy said nothing.


	5. A Very Long Day

Chapter 4: A Very Long Day

Rogueport

Mario and his companions staggered into town. They were dog tired after battling so many enemies and running out of Dark Land as fast as they could, not wanting to be caught by the victor of the battle at Bowser's Castle, be they Bowser, or Sandy Yoshi. Mario stubbornly urged his companions to go straight to the Thousand-Year Door so they could see the location of the next Crystal Star, but they refused. So he grudgingly accompanied them to the Rogueport Inn, where, after a brief reunion with Luigi and Toadsworth, Mario was the first of the heroes to fall asleep.

The next day, the group marched into the sewer and to the Door, where, after another brilliant light show, the location of the 11th Crystal Star was marked on the map, on an island in the bottom right corner, in place of the Nibbles previously depicted there.

"Oohhh!" said Goombella, "I've never heard of that island before, maybe we should ask Frankly about it."

"He wouldn't know about it either," said Vivian, the others asked her to explain, "well, that island is the Shadow Queen's old lair, it actually exists in the shadows themselves, so no ship could ever reach it, not even Cortez could get us there."

"Great," moaned Koops, "now we'll never get that Opal Star, and never save Peach…"

"Oh Nooooo!" wailed Mario angrily.

"Wait guys!" said Vivian, "don't be so hasty, I know for a fact that Beldam knows how to get to that island."

"Oh yeah? But do you know where she is?" asked G-Yo.

"Um, no," said Vivian, sheepishly, "but, I'm pretty sure they've kept in contact with Freak-Sheet, so he might know where they are. Um, you've been acting in a play with him, right, Flurrie?"

Vivian looked at the cloud woman hopefully, but she shook her head sadly, "I **was** acting in a play with _Doopliss_, but it ended last month and I haven't seen him since. Pity though, he always took the stage so beautifully."

"Ah well," said G-Yo, heading out of the chamber, "we tried."

"G-YO!" gasped Vivian, shocked at the Yoshi Kid's disinterest in the completion (or lack thereof) of their quest. She and the others followed G-Yo, discussing amongst themselves on where to start searching for the elder two Shadow Sirens.

However, when they reached the surface, their conversation was abruptly cut off by the voice of Noi C. "Extra! Extra! Read All About It! Koopa Empire Crushed by Mysterious Foe! Shadow Sirens Dominate at Glitz Pit!"

"WHAT!!!!" shouted Mario and his friends, except G-Yo who had rushed over and bought a newspaper. On the front page was a picture of Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss, standing next to an unconscious Amazee Dayzee in the Glitz Pit Arena.

G-Yo whistled, "man, they sure trounced that Amazee Dayzee, and I thought he would go far…"

"Who cares!" said Goombella, "we now know where they are, we can find out how to get onto that island!"

"No need to state the obvious honey," said Ms. Mowz, as the eight heroes walked towards the blimp field. Luigi and Toadsworth waved goodbye as their friends boarded the airship and sailed away to the floating city.

Glitzville

The ride went smoothly and upon landing, the group immediately headed for Jolene's office, where they urgently asked for an audience with the Shadow Sirens (and Doopliss). Jolene cleared them, but warned them that they may not get a warm reception.

She was right: a curt hello between sisters (although Marilyn actually said "Guh!") and a mere nod from Doopliss to Flurrie, and nothing more.

"But we **need** to get onto that island," pleaded Vivian, after explaining the situation to her stoic sisters and asking for their assistance multiple times.

"No can do," said Beldam, unmoved by her little sister's plight, "Shadow Island is off limits to everyone; the Shadow Queen didn't even let me or Marilyn onto it."

"Guh huh," agreed the largest Shadow Siren.

"But, the Queen's gone – again – and we need the 11th Star."

"I don't care, I know we agreed to stop being mean to you, but after you betrayed us for these… _creatures_," said Beldam, looking around at Mario and the others disapprovingly, "we feel no obligation to help you in the slightest."

"Guh uh."

"Yeah," said Doopliss, speaking for the first time in the entire meeting, "we're perfectly happy fighting legally here in the Pit, and we don't need to be helping a bunch of no-good, irritating meddlers like you guys to foul us up, no sir!"

"Freak-Sheet's right, all you have to offer us is grief," said Beldam, obviously still concerned about being stabbed in the back by the 'heroic' plumber.

"Well, what if we make it worth your while?" said G-Yo, everyone looked at him strangely.

"Like what?" asked Doopliss.

"Well, you guys want to be the Champions, right?" The three fighters nodded. "And ya can't do that until you beat the current Champion, right?" Once again, they nodded. "And since _I_'m the Champion…"

"We have to beat **you** to get the title," breathed Doopliss.

"Yeah, and I won't fight you until ya tell us how to get on that island," said G-Yo, grinning.

"Fine," growled Beldam, "go register for a battle and come back here; we'll tell you everything we know."

"Deal!" said G-Yo, before turning and marching out of the Major League Locker room and going to his room, the others elected to stay behind, as their little friend would return to the Shadow Siren (and Doopliss)'s locker room anyway.

Sure enough, he returned in no time and promptly demanded the promised information from Beldam. "Okay, Shadow Island is where our Queen would store all her magical apparatuses, including, the Opal Star. To get there, just go into the shadows, Viv, and you'll be there.

"Now, I know you guys know the story of how the Shadow Queen created the Crystal Stars to harness the energy of the 'heavens' and allow her to spread her influence across the land. But, what you don't know is that she created not seven, but eleven Crystal Stars. That's why, although those four _heroes_ collected her main Stars and used them against her, they only managed to destroy her body, and not her spirit, because they didn't have _all_ the vessels of her power. Now, contrary to popular belief, the Thousand-Year Door was not, in-fact, created by the Four Heroes, but by the Queen herself. You see, after she started taking over the world, she built the Palace of Shadow, and stopped living on Shadow Island. She built the Door to protect her palace, and used those seven Crystal Stars as keys, of sorts. But, she and the rest of us shadow creatures could get in and out whenever we wanted."

"Then why did you need someone to open the door for you?" interrupted G-Yo, rudely.

"We didn't need someone to open the door, we needed someone to open the Queen's crypt, and collect the stars so she could take over the world!" said Beldam, "but, heh, not anymore, that is, heh heh. Uh, anyway, uh, er, where was I?"

"Guh guh-guh guh, guh," said Marilyn.

"Oh yeah, the Thousand-Year Door. Well, as I was saying, with the seven main stars present, the door opens up to the Palace of Shadow, but with all eleven Crystal Stars, it opens up the path to the Rainbow Fortress."

"The what!?!" exclaimed Doopliss, who had never heard this story before either.

Beldam shot him a look and continued, "the Rainbow Fortress – our Queen found it and used it to gain access to the Star World… or Star Road, or Star Haven, or whatever you people call it. Back then we just called it 'Heaven'."

"But isn't Heaven where you go when you meet you're journey's end?" interrupted Bobbery.

"No! Well… maybe, unless you become a ghost," said Beldam, a bit irritated about being interrupted again.

"Like a Boo?" asked Koops.

"No, Boos are ghosts that are born as ghosts and were nothing but ghosts, and eventually fade away like dead-soul type ghosts which is what you're thinking about," said Goombella. "Just ask Luigi about them when we get back to Rogueport, he knows all about them."

"Hey us Duplighosts are non-spirit ghosts too!" added Doopliss.

"ENOUGH!" shouted Beldam, silencing the group, "do you want me to finish my story or not?" The others nodded, even Doopliss. "Good, now the Shadow Queen got the power from the Star… _Place_, and used it to almost take over the world. The reason why no one knows about the 'extra' four Crystal Stars is because our Queen knew enough to keep them secret and safe, she even kept the Amethyst Star with her at all times, and she hid the Opal Star away on Shadow Island to ensure her continual existence."

"Hmm, I wonder how Shadow Yoshi got the Amethyst Star…" wondered Flurrie.

"Um, I think that big turtle-guy got it first," said Doopliss.

"Bowser? Why do you-a-think that?" demanded Mario.

"Simple," said Doopliss smugly, "I read the newspaper."

"I told you guys to let me finish that _8__th__ Crystal Star Discovered_ article," huffed Koops.

"But it was recycling day, sweetie," said Ms. Mowz. Before Koops could reply, there was a knock at the door, and G-Yo and the Shadow Sirens (and Doopliss) were ushered to the Arena; the others sat in the sidelines.

Mario moved to join G-Yo, but Jolene blocked him, "sorry Mario, but you're retired, remember."

G-Yo was okay with that, "no sweat Gonzales, I've been flying solo for a while, I'll be fine."

"Okey-dokey" said Mario, but the others were still concerned; after Bobbery, they were a bit worried about letting any of their partners go it alone.

And their fears weren't misplaced, for the fight between 'The Shadow Sirens' and 'The Great Gonzales Junior' was swift, and G-Yo lost.

"We have some new champions!" announced Jolene to the roaring crowd, "'Bedlam, master of chaos', 'Maryland, the unspoken terror', and 'Freak-Sheet, the bedroom menace'!!!"

The Watering Hole (Glitzville's Juice Bar)

G-Yo was drinking his life away in twice his weight of juice. After months of training and fighting, G-Yo had become the Champion, only to be defeated in his first battle with the title. And although he was hard-headed, rash and rude, beneath that tough exterior, he was still a kid, and his friends hated seeing him so sad.

"Come on G-Yo, a little more practice and you'll get them," said Vivian, "I know my sisters, and now that they're on top they'll become cocky, and you'll win, hands down. You just got to keep a level head, that's all."

"You're just saying that," he said gloomily, "I'll never beat them; they trounced me worse than Gonzales trounced Bowser yesterday." He sighed, that victory seemed an eternity ago, all he could think of now was his defeat.

"Maybe so, honey," said Ms. Mowz, "but don't let that get you down. Like Vivian said, you'll get them next time."

"No I won't!" snapped G-Yo, irritated at his friends' sickly sweet words of optimistic dribble, "I'm all washed up, my glory days are over! I minght as well move to Yoshi Island and help baby-sit my fellow, stupid, useless preschoolers, or maybe eat some mindless baddies and grow up and speak in nothing but Yoshi, or go to Isle Delfino and develop hydrophobia, or go to Lavalava Island and-"

"Enough!" commanded Flurrie, floating in front of G-Yo, above the bar counter. "When you give a bad performance you don't make it your swan song! No! You go back up the next show and give it your all, and show the critics what you're made of! When your play sinks into obscurity you make a new production! You don't give up! That's not Show Business! And it's not Life Business either!"

"You said it!" said a voice from the doorway, the group turned to see Doopliss shuffling into the bar, closely followed by Marilyn and Beldam.

"What do you want?" said G-Yo coldly, but without his usual brashness.

"We heard your planning on quitting," said Beldam.

"So?"

"So, that would be a bad idea!" said Doopliss, "You were the hardest opponent we fought in the Glitz Pit yet!"

"Even harder than the Amazee Dayzee?" asked G-Yo, perking up a bit.

"Guh Huh!" nodded Marilyn enthusiastically.

"Wow! Cool!" said G-Yo excitedly, before turning solemn again, "but you defeated me so easily."

"Actually, we were just acting like it was easy, using some of Freak-Sheet's theater skills," said Beldam.

"Aw, and I thought you gave up show business for good," said Flurrie to the Duplighost.

"Are you kiddin'? If it weren't for show biz and our _Paper Mario_ play, I never would've thought about bringing these guys to the Glitz Pit!" grinned Doopliss.

"Yeah, yeah, the point is, we don't want you to quit, kid," said Beldam to G-Yo, "we still want to have **some **decent opponents to defeat."

"What d'ya mean 'decent', I'm more than 'decent' I'm superb! And don't you forget it!" said G-Yo jumping to his feet, unable to resist a challenge (of sorts). "And another thing, next time, you won't be defeating me! No way! Now c'mon guys! Let's go, get that Star, save the princess and kick some bad-guy butt!"

"Wait!" said Beldam, blocking the exit, "before you go, there's something we need to tell you."

"What-a-is it?" asked Mario, impatient to complete his quest.

"Well, when we were helping Sir Grodus and the X-Nauts resurrect the Shadow Queen, we sorta told Grodus about Shadow Island, and even allowed him to set up a barrier blocking the way into the Queen's mini-fortress."

"What! Since when? I thought you said Shadow Island was off limits to _everyone_?" exclaimed Vivian.

"Since you defected to Mario's side we had to bend the rules; we couldn't have you retrieving all those magic weapons for him to defeat us with!"

"But I didn't even know how to get on Shadow Island until today."

"Well, you do now, and besides, 'better safe than sorry'. Now see ya sis!" with that, Beldam sank into the ground.

"Buh-Bye!" grunted Marilyn, before following her sister.

"Hey I thought you agreed to not do that anymore!" shouted Doopliss, storming out of the Watering Hole, however he had only gone a few steps before Marilyn's hand reached up from the ground and pulled the Duplighost into the shadows with an 'Eeep!'

"Well, what do we do now?" said Koops, after a minute.

"Oh! I know!" said Goombella, hopping up and down, "we can, like, go to the moon and ask that computer TEC how to get past Grodus' barrier!"

"Oh no! Not that cannon again…" whined Koops.

"No silly, we'll just use the teleporter, remember?"

"Oh right, I forgot about that," said Koops embarrassed at his mistake, blushing slightly. The others shrugged it off and the group caught the blimp back to Rogueport, where, after lunch at Zess T.'s, they teleported to the moon.

X-Naut Lunar Base

"Oh, my poor Princess Peach, captured again! Oh this is horrible, I hope she is okay," said TEC after his visitors told him the news.

"Yes, and now we need to get the final Crystal Star from Shadow Island so we can totally use the power of all 11 Crystal Stars to save Peach!" said Goombella, "and in order to do that we need to get past Grodus' barrier blocking-off the fortress."

"That barrier is unbreakable, but you can open it with a password," said TEC.

"Great, give us the password my, uh, boy? Uh, and we'll be on our way!" said Bobbery, unsure whether or not to refer to TEC as male or not. But, given TEC's infatuation with Peach, Bobbery decided to go with male.

"Unfortunately I cannot do that," said TEC.

"Great, more loyalties to dead overlords," moaned G-Yo, back to his usual pluckiness.

"No, I do not have any personal reason to defend Grodus, who is in fact, alive and well; he exists as a head in Poshley Heights," explained TEC.

"How is being just a head 'well'?" asked Koops, raising what would have been his eyebrow, but was actually nothing more than his eyelid.

"He is not dead, and to anyone, that should be well enough."

"Great, a philosophical computer, what's your view on the Meaning of Life?" said G-Yo sarcastically.

"I-" began TEC, before Mario cut 'him' off.

"That is-a-not important, what's important is-a-finding Peach!"

"I concur Mario, as I was explaining earlier, I could not tell you the password to the barrier because it is not in my memory banks. Only Sir Grodus has that information."

"Then it's on to Poshley Heights m'dears!" announced Flurrie.

"Great! Let's-a-go!" said Mario, rushing out of the room, followed by the rest of his party members.

"Thanks, TEC," said Vivian, before leaving.

"You are welcome, just please, save Princess Peach."

"We will, don't worry," said Vivian, before turning and hurrying after her friends.

Poshley Heights

Thanks to the joys of teleporters and warp pipes, Mario and Co. made it to the ritzy neighbourhood in no time, and began their search for Grodus immediately. However, someone else found them first.

"Mario! Darling!" said Toodles, walking over to the group, "I was hoping to run into you sooner or later. You see, I was wondering if you could do me a little favor…"

"Not-a-now, we're-a-looking for Grodus," said Mario, trying to ignore the Toad woman, but she followed him.

"The head? I know where he and his hideously-dressed attachés are training, or whatever it is they do," she said. This got Mario's attention.

"Tell me, now!" he ordered, turning to face Toodles.

"First, hear me out: you're always beating up on that big strong Dragon-Koopa, Bowser, despite the Endangered Species Act, and-"

"Wait! The ESA!" exclaimed Goombella, whipping out her tattle-log and flipping through it, "oh my gosh! It's true! Dragon-Koopas **are** endangered! I'm surprised Bowser hasn't sued you yet, Mario!"

Mario looked unconcerned about the prospect of facing lawsuits; this made Tootles smile. "As I was saying, Mario, since your always defeating him, and knocking him out and whatnot, I was wondering if you could, perhaps, saw off his horns for me next time you got him down!"

"WHAT!" exclaimed Mario and his friends simultaneously. "Why do you-a-want Bowser's horns?" asked the plumber.

"Because, us women of stature would do well to show it, and having an impressive pair of expensive Dragon-Koopa horns above my fireplace would do the trick! But thanks to that pesky law, Don Pianta had to shut down the trade; that or the fact that there aren't any Dragon-Koopas around anymore, except Bowser and his family, of course!" Mario looked unconvinced. "I'll pay top dollar!" added Tootles.

"How-a-much?" asked the plumber, always open to collecting Coins.

"Mario! You can't sell her Bowser's horns! It's against the law! And while you may get away with beating him up to save Peach, you'll totally go to jail for poaching if you help Toodles!" said Goombella, ignoring the dirty looks the gold-digging Toad shot her.

"Nonsense, even if you do kill Bowser, I heard he comes back to life all the time!" said Toodles, "so, what do you say? Is one million Mushroom Coins enough?"

"Sorry-a-Toodles," said Mario, walking away again, "but right-a-now I have a princess to-a-save, perhaps some other-a-time."

Toodles knew he didn't mean it, "drat!" she muttered, "I was sure Mario would do it. Oh well, There's always Rawk Hawk…"

Later In front of Poshly Sanctum

Even without Toodles' help, Mario and the others soon found Sir Grodus, sitting outside the Poshley Sanctum with Lord Crump. Upon seeing the group, Crump jumped up furious, "you again! You caused the downfall of the X-Nauts; you humiliated me over and over! And for that, you will pay!" He then jumped into some nearby bushes, and emerged with a new robot. "Say hello to the Magnus Von Grapple 4.2."

"4.2? What happened to 2.1 through 4.1?" asked Goombella.

"There was no 2.1, and Magnus Von Grapple 3.0 blew up, as for Magnus Von Grapple 4.0, I added stuff to it, twice!"

"Great, now we get to fight a new, improved robot," moaned Koops.

"Let's-a-go!" exclaimed Mario, confidant he could defeat Crump's latest invention, and you know what? He did!

The Magnus Von Grapple 4.2 eventually blew up, and although Crump had managed to get out of it before being launched into the Stratosphere, he was swiftly besieged by Mario and his companions. And after a short brawl he lay on the ground unconscious.

"Oh drat," said Grodus, with his usual nasal and snooty voice, however he knew he couldn't hop away since he was just a head. And, the fight had attracted a host of bystanders (not including Toodles, who – to Mario and Goombellas' relieves – had disappeared).

"Grodus!" said Mario, who, despite his short stature, towered above the disembodied circuitry-loaded head, "tell us the-a-password to your-a-barrier on Shadow Island, or else!"

"So, the noble-hearted Mario has been reduced to threats? What ill fate has befallen the Princess this time, buh huh huh!" mocked Grodus.

"Don't mock him, sweetie, there's no telling what he'll do," cautioned Ms. Mowz.

"Yeah! Gonzales beats up babies!" added G-Yo.

"Again with the-a-babies!" yelled an exasperated Mario, it had been a long day and he did not want to have to put up with anymore social critiques.

"Hmm, babies eh?" said Grodus, thoughtfully, "maybe you're not so bad, or should I say good? Buh huh huh! But, in all seriousness, I may as well grant you access to the island's fortress, I can't get there myself anyway. So, the password is… 'Sir Grodus the Great'!"

"Figures, why are all you villains ego-maniacs?" asked G-Yo (rhetorically).

"Who cares! Let's-a-go! NOW!" shouted Mario, running towards the warp pipe.

The others weren't in such a hurry and lagged behind, listening to Vivian talk about what they might find on Shadow Island. Lord Crump, who was just waking up also heard their conversation. "Sir Grodus!" he exclaimed fearfully, "You didn't tell them the password was 'Piggy' did you?"

Mario's friends stopped in their tracks; the plumber himself was too far ahead and didn't notice the absence of partners as his heels.

"Crump you fool!" shouted Grodus angrily.

"Hey, ya stupid head, you gave us the wrong password! Why I otta use you as a soccer ball ya good for nothing-" ranted G-Yo, as Flurrie and Vivian struggled to hold him back once again.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Mario may beat up babies but he's still my enemy; I'd sooner join that foolish turtle's Koopa Troop than help you!" said Grodus.

"If you're referring to Bowser, he's not a turtle at all, he's a rare species of dragon that has evolved to look like a Koopa, not a turtle," started Goombella. She had been studiously brushing up on her knowledge of Dragon-Koopas ever since the group's encounter with Toodles (using her Tattle-Log). "And, both Dragon-Koopas and normal Koopas possess turtle-like qualities that have been enhanced by magic, like-"

"I don't care! You have what you came for now go!" said Grodus irately. As the group marched after Mario who had already disappeared through the warp pipe, Grodus hopped over to Crump, still furious at his subordinate's slip up. "And as for _you_, you're on wax-duty all week! Now get polishing! I want my cranium to shine! Buh huh huh!"

_I'll get you for this Mario_, thought Crump bitterly, as he started hot waxing his master's head; if only he had run off to surf on Isle Delfino like the other X-Nauts, alas, he needed the funding for his latest Magnus Von Grapple, but Mario had destroyed that too.

"Hurry up Crump, It's almost sundown!" scolded Grodus.

"Yes sir," sighed Crump, _No doubt about it, Mario, you will pay!_

Shadow Island

When Mario's friends caught up to the plumber he impatiently ushered them to the docks, where he had Cortez set sail immediately. The others weren't too thrilled about this since it was almost suppertime and they wanted a break before setting off on any more mini-quests, but Mario would hear nothing of it. Fortunately, Cortez had some food in the storerooms and the group got their meal anyway; Ms. Mowz, G-Yo, Flurrie, Goombella and Koops even managed to nap a little before the ship reached the area where Shadow Island should have been.

However, all they found was a small, barren, craggy rock. Cortez anchored beside it and the group went 'ashore'. There, Vivian sucked them all down into the shadows, but instead of descending down into a black abyss, the group rose out of the ground immediately, on Shadow Island.

"Whoa! that was sooo weird, we sunk down into the ground, but then we rose out of the ground without changing directions, but we weren't upside down, but – oh, my head hurts!" said Goombella, trying to make sense of what just happened.

"Is it just me, or does this place look a lot like the Nega-Realm?" asked Koops, looking around at the dark, misty beach they were now standing on.

"A bit sweetie, but at least the sky isn't orange," said Ms. Mowz, looking up at the night sky.

"Mamma-mia! Nighttime already! We-a-better hurry!" said Mario, dashing off towards a stone path, leading up to a generic-looking fortress perched upon a cliff, high above the group.

"But, it's always night here!" said Vivian, who was familiar with 'shadow worlds' (little pocket universes of the shadows). "It's only, 8:00!"

"That's nighttime idiot, it was dark back in our non-shadow world anyway, Gonzales just didn't say anything then. No need to go wrongly correcting him now," huffed G-Yo, who, despite his earlier nap, was still tired and grumpy.

Mario paid them no attention, running and bounding up the hill to the fortress. "Piggy!" he said upon reaching the citadel's gates (the others had told him the real password when they caught up with him back in Rogueport), the faint shimmering yellow forcefield faded out of sight and Mario yanked open the doors.

"Mario wait!" yelled Vivian as she and the others breathlessly caught up to their friend, "knowing the Shadow Queen, my sisters and Grodus, they've probably put all sorts of traps in there! We should all go in together!"

"Okey-dokey!" said Mario, "but you have to be-a-fast!"

So the group proceeded through the fortress together, where they indeed found many obstacles, both magical Shadow-Creature–type traps, and high-tech X-Naut traps. But they made it past all of them and kept walking at a brisk pace, too slow for Mario's liking, and too fast for the others.

Regardless of whether they went too fast or too slow or both, they reached the innermost storeroom within the hour. It appeared to have been looted by the X-Nauts, but after some tedious searching (to Mario's annoyance), they came across a hidden switch.

When Vivian used her shadowy powers to flip it, a small chamber opened up in the nearest wall, and inside it was… The Opal Star!

"Yay! The last Crystal Star!" said Goombella, hopping up and down. The others all cheered with her and left the fortress with the glittering star (as well as a few potions and various other useful items). Mario made them keep an even brisker pace on their way out as they had already destroyed all the traps, and therefore had no valid excuses to 'dilly daddy' in his opinion.

The Craggy Rock

As a result, they made it back down to the beach in no time and Vivian 'shadowed' them back to the 'land of the living', as G-Yo put it.

They walked along the desolate rock towards Cortez's ship as the moon and stars shone down on them. Mario held up the Opal Star and the others stared at its beauty, but that's not what the plumber was thinking of. "This-a-star will be the means to free-a-Peach!" he said aloud to the group.

Suddenly there was a whoosh! And the Opal Star shot out of Mario's hands into the sky. "What!?!" exclaimed the party as the Star was snatched up by a familiar purple blur.

"Not you again! Ya old hag!" said G-Yo as Kammy flew to a stop above their heads, holding the Opal Star firmly in her wizened old claws.

"You should respect you elders, brat!" said Kammy, who, like the heroes, was getting a wee bit tired and cranky.

"Give the star-a-back!" ordered Mario.

Kammy laughed, unfazed. "Ooooh, more threats? I'm sooo scared," she said mockingly.

"Yeah well you should be!" said Goombella, "we took one Crystal Star from Bowser, we can totally do it again!"

"If you can find us, mushroom-girl! 'Cause King Bowser knew enough to come up with an alternative rendezvous for us this time; you won't be finding us at any of his castles, no siree!" with that Kammy cackled and flew away over the ocean towards the Western horizon, the opposite direction from Dark Land.

"Great, what do we do now?" moaned Koops, his pessimism heightened by the long, tiresome day that had all his friends on their last legs, and nerves.

"Enough of that quitter-talk, Koops," ordered Flurrie.

"It wasn't quitter-talk, it was an honest question," whined Koops.

"But your tone says it all," she rebutted.

"He sounds like that _all_ the time," said Goombella, her usual cheerfulness having been drained by that last-minute defeat at the hands of the senile old Magikoopa.

"Aye, he does," agreed Bobbery.

"Hey!" whined Koops, a little angry.

"See, my point exactly," said Bobbery, Goombella and Flurrie nodded in agreement.

"Friends, please, don't fight! Let's just get to Cortez's _darling_ ship and go home. We'll decide on what we'll do in the morning," said Ms. Mowz, still trying to stay pleasant.

"Rogueport may be _your_ home, but Boggly Woods is mine, and I don't see us going there anytime soon," said Flurrie.

"What about Petalburg?" grumbled Koops.

"We've already been there, _twice_! Not including our return trip from Blaarg Volcano," said Goombella.

"I've always considered the sea as my true home," commented Bobbery.

"That's 'cause your weird!" said G-Yo, "Glitzville may be a flying city, but at least it's a specific place."

"But we were just there," moaned Goombella.

"So? I just said that's my home, I didn't say anything about going back there instead of Rogueport, unlike you guys."

"What are you talking about? All I was doing was pointing out that Rogueport shouldn't be called 'home' as far as the entire group's concerned, because it's not," said Flurrie defensively.

"Fine, I'll call it our 'base of operations' from now on, okay hun?" sighed Ms. Mowz, wishing the argument would end.

"A city can't be a base, it's a city," pointed out Goombella.

"Well if that's the case, a floating amusement park can't be a city either," huffed Koops, still sore about the others calling him a whiner.

"Hey! Stupid Koopa! I'll get you for that!" hissed G-Yo.

"Why'd you say 'either' m'boy, that doesn't fit what Ms. Mowz said before," commented Bobbery, ignoring G-Yo's latest threat.

"So?" mumbled Koops.

"So, you should think before you speak, shell-for-brains!" snapped G-Yo.

The argument continued until the group reached Cortez's ship, and even then it didn't end. The old sea captain was quite surprised about the companions' fighting. "Hey now! What's stirring up yer waters mateys?" he asked.

"Kammy stole the last star, and then Ms. Mowz called Rogueport 'home' even though, like, half of the others aren't from the city, and then they totally started arguing about 'home', and-" said Goombella.

"What do ya mean 'they', you were part of the argument too," interrupted G-Yo.

"Yes, and don't blame the whole ordeal on me please, darling," said Ms. Mowz, a little less sweetly as before.

Before the argument could flare up again, Cortez interrupted, "as far as I care, Keelhaul Key is the place to be, but anywhere is good as long as you got your mates with ya."

The others looked down ashamed, even Mario and Vivian who hadn't been part of the argument were sorry about not trying to stop their friends' fighting. After a round of apologizing, the group boarded the ship and sailed back to Rogueport in silence.

As the ship neared the harbour, most of the passengers had fallen asleep, except Cortez, and Vivian. The ex-Shadow Siren watched as the dark silhouettes of the buildings became larger and larger. She looked down at the water below her and sighed. It had been a very long day.

**Peach Interlude #5**

Shadow Yoshi's Palace

Peach was growing a little anxious; the guards had missed their usual food and water delivery, and Peach was worried they were going to let her starve. It had been the same way with the X-Nauts, and Booster, and Cackletta and virtually everyone else who had kidnapped her: she wasn't sure of what they were going to do to her. At first, it had been the same with Bowser, but nowadays the mystery and lots of the fear were gone. He had never hurt her – tried to force her to marry him, yes, but she had a funny feeling he'd only force her through the wedding **day**, not the night.

She sighed. Suddenly she heard sounds outside of her window. "Speak of the Devil," she muttered to herself as she pushed the stool over to the window.

"The Devil? Me? I thought we had already cleared up the fact that I'm a good-guy around here," said Nega-Bowser, surprising Peach with the accuteness of his hearing.

"I'm so glad to see you!" said Peach smiling, "I can't stand this place!"

"Than it's a good thing I've got this," said Nega-Bowser, holding up a giant chainsaw, resting the blade against the rightmost window bar, "you better step back, I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Bowser, I've got a question," she said suddenly, "you seem pretty smart here, does that mean the other you is stupid? Because he can be a bit thick-headed, but I've always thought-"

"Well, you got to remember that people aren't just one or two dimensional. I'm a complex person just like you, and so's the other me. Also, this world doesn't flip everything about a person, just their relation to evil and good. A totally pure person from your world, like you, would be totally evil here; but a slightly evil person would become slightly good. It's all shades of grey, here _and_ there."

"Oh, I never thought of it like that," said Peach. Nega-Bowser was really deep, and she was pretty sure intelligence and wisdom weren't good/bad traits. _So_, she wondered, _does that mean my world's Bowser is philosophical too?_

Nega-Bowser snapped her out of her thoughts, "Peaches, c'mon, I really need to work fast here and you spacing-out on the windowsill isn't helping."

"Oh sorry," apologized the princess, hopping down away from the window, "but, my name's Peach, not Peaches."

However Nega-Bowser once again missed her correction as he had promptly begun sawing though the bar. As Peach watched the orange sparks fly, she couldn't help but feel concerned; Nega-Bowser never stayed with her long, but today he seemed awful pressed for time. That and the lack of new food and water made Peach wonder if something was about to happen.

Nega-Bowser had the bars sawed-off in no time, and crawled forward. He was too big to fit through the window, but he managed to get his head and one arm through. "Alright, let's go Peaches," he said, reaching down for the princess.

She opened her mouth to correct her friend, when the door burst open, and Shadow Yoshi stormed into the room; closely followed by his four children, Sandy, Brandy, Randy and Andy; a female Yoshi with long black hair and stiletto boots; and a male Magikoopa in a ragged cloak.

"Humph, so you're the one whose been climbing around my palace, and talking about a rebellion; and who help that good-for-nothing plumber get back to his world!" hissed Shadow Yoshi.

"That's me," growled Nega-Bowser.

"Good, get 'em Jack!" said Shadow Yoshi.

"Yes sir!" said the Magikoopa, sending a powerful spell shooting towards Nega-Bowser, who deflected it with his fire-breath.

"What are you doing with this creep? Do you know how he treats us non-dinosaurs?" said Nega-Bowser, obviously trying to bring Jack to his side. Mario had done it before, so Peach was hopeful he could too.

"Yeah, like dirt! 'Cept me, 'cause unlike the rest of ya, I'm useful! He he!" cackled Jack.

"Enough talk! Kids, get the princess!" ordered Shadow Yoshi. His offspring immediately obeyed and lunged forward towards Peach.

"Ahh!" she screamed, and was saved by another one of Nega-Bowser's flames. However, saving Peach left the Dragon-Koopa open to attack, and Shadow Yoshi saw this.

Lashing out with his green tongue, the evil Yoshi shoved Nega-Bowser out of the window. "Ahhh!" screamed the Koopa as he disappeared from view.

"Nooooo!" wailed Peach, jumping up to the window and sticking her head through the frame, looking down. Nega-Bowser was gone; she could still see the hole in the clouds below that her friend had made as he plummeted to his death. "No!" she gasped, tears fogging her vision; suddenly she was yanked from her perch by a sick, slimy tongue, wrapped around her neck.

She landed on the stone floor with a 'Bang!' Stinging pain coursed through her body, but had nothing against the emotional pain of Nega-Bowser dying in his attempt to save _her_.

"Well _Peaches_, good news. We're going back to your world, so you won't have to rely on an idiot like him for company," said Shadow Yoshi cruelly. Peach was shocked: he had known about Nega-Bowser's visits all along. Her eyes flashed at how he mocked her courageous friend. Shadow Yoshi saw her anger, and smiled sinisterly. "Shadis, you and the kids watch the home-front while Jack and I take over the Nega-Realm."

Peach looked up in shock; by Nega-Realm, Shadow Yoshi was referring to her realm (which makes sense as he is native to this realm and wouldn't think of it as 'The Nega Realm', like Peach). She also figured that Shadis, the female Yoshi, was Shadow Yoshi's mate.

"But dad," said Sandy, "our army's outta commission thanks to _King_ Bowser." This surprised Peach – if Sandy had a run in with her world's Bowser she probably had a run in with Mario too.

"Don't worry, _he_ was the only thing that might have been a problem," said Shadow Yoshi, nodding his head towards the window, "and now he's gone." With that he turned and left the room, Jack waved his wand and long chords suddenly appeared out of thin air, wrapping around Peach's body. Jack then waved his wand and lifted the princess into the air, levitating her out the door.

"Ah! Help!" shouted Peach.

All the Yoshis laughed. Jack sneered at Peach, "there's no point in doing that here girlie, no one's gonna save you."

**Bowser Interlude #5**

Somewhere in the Ocean

Bowser stood on the deck of the Koopa Cruiser tapping his foot impatiently. Kammy had sent him a message with her magic, informing him that she had successfully stolen the 11th Crystal Star. She had told him to come to the rendezvous point immediately and he did just that.

And he had waited, and waited, and waited. He waited almost all night and now dawn was nearing; the stars were already fading as the eastern sky paled. It would probably be a very beautiful sunrise, but Bowser didn't care. He looked over at his crew: every soldier in his army that hadn't been severely wounded in the recent conflict with Mario and the evil Yoshi girl's army, all six of them.

A Hammer Bro., a Fire Bro., three Koopatrols and a Paratroopa, all fortunate enough to be merely knocked-out by Mario and his posse when they were fighting the Koopalings. Bowser had been very unhappy about this – it had been all over the media. The King of the Koopas learned the hard way that publicity isn't always good for his image.

As the sun approached the horizon, Bowser once again turned to look for Kammy; and this time she was there, silhouetted against the brilliant red and gold skyline. "About time!" growled Bowser as Kammy came in for a landing.

"Sorry, Your Irkedness, but Mario took forever to get the Opal Star, and by then it was night and I sorta got lost…" said the old Magikoopa, before presenting her king with the final Crystal Star (as a peace offering, of-sorts).

"I thought you Magikoopas **don't** get lost; y'know, 'cause you're magic – couldn't ya just conjure up a map, or a compass, or a GPS, or whatever?" said Bowser, irritated, but not mad at his advisor as he took the amber-orange star.

"Uhhhh," said Kammy, before quickly changing the subject, "did you know, Your Rareness, that you Dragon-Koopas are endangered, and if Mario ever hurt you for no reason you could sue him!"

"Really," said Bowser, looking thoughtfully into space, still holding the Crystal Star in his hands, "maybe we should try tricking Mario into doing that – frame me for a crime, or something."

"Great idea! Your Cunningness!" beamed Kammy.

"Not really, knowing how bias the princess, and the Star Spirits and every other Mario-loving loser in this Mario-crazed country is. The next thing ya know they'll be hosting 'Bowser-hunts', just to let their stupid little plumber get to me!" growled the King of the Koopas, turning away from the deck railing.

"I'm not so sure of that, Your Opressedness."

"Well I am, and that's all that matters 'cause I'm King! And now, I say, on to Rogueport!" said Bowser, walking to the control room and grabbing the steering wheel himself (what with the crew being so short handed and all).

"Rogueport? I thought the whole reason for setting up this whole rendezvous business was to **stop** Mario from finding us, now you're practically flying us over to his front doorstep, Your Suicidalness!"

"Exactly, he won't be expecting that! He may think I'm a fool, but he knows I'm not crazy!" said Bowser, having purposely acted somewhat bumbling in public recently as a bid to get people to underestimate him (clever, no?). "Besides, we otta open the Thousand-Year Door with all eleven Crystal Stars anyway, one Star alone ain't gonna do us much good!"

"I guess that's true, Your Insightfulness," said Kammy, feeling a bit embarrassed about underestimating her king.

"Of course it's true!" said Bowser, as the Koopa Cruiser whirred to life and took off into the air. As the ship sailed through the sky, Bowser couldn't help but feel good. Sure his army was in ruins, sure his kids were hospitalized, sure his wife disappeared without a trace nearly two years previously, sure he was defeated at everything he did by Mario, sure his only real friend was an ugly old hag; but that was okay, because he had the final Crystal Star. He was going to open a portal to who-knows where, he was going to defeat Shadow Yoshi, he was going to save Peach. He knew it. He felt it.

Suddenly the cruiser lurched violently, Bowser was thrown of balance, but regained it quickly, using the steering wheel to stabilize the ship's flight. "What was that?" he demanded.

"I dunno," said the Hammer Bro. From the engineer's station, "the engines don't seem to be malfunctioning."

"Uh sir," said the female Koopatrol uneasily, "I'm reading a zero on the fuel gauges."

Her male counterparts seconded her report with their own sensors: the main generator was out of fuel and systems were shutting off all over the Koopa Cruiser.

"How could this happen?" shouted Kammy, as the cruiser slowly started descending towards the sea.

"Uh, I think I forgot to fill up on gas before we left," said Bowser sheepishly.

Kammy (and the other Koopas) said nothing.


	6. Helping Hands

Chapter 5: Helping Hands

Rogueport Docks

Mario woke up in Cortez's ship early in the morning; he roused all his friends and rushed off the ship, the others hot on his heels. However, when they came into the Plaza they were shocked to see Toadsworth, Luigi, all his friends from the Waffle Kingdom (Blooey the brown Blooper; Jerry the cherry Bob-Omb; Torque the Spike-Top mechanic; Hayzee the Crazee-Dayzee playwright; and Screamy the mysterious onion-ghost-thing), and a beautiful women waving them over from in front of the Inn.

"H- Hey bro." Said Luigi nervously after Mario's party forced him to come over to the group, instead of jumping down the sewer grates and going straight to the Thousand-Year Door. "P-please a-allow m-me t-t-t-to introduce, P-princess Éclair," with that Luigi held his hands out to the beautiful princess, and the reason for his nervousness.

She was as short as Mario, Asian, and wearing a long silk Kimono. "I am honored to meet you," she said politely to Mario and the others.

"I'm sorry but I'm-a-in a hurry and must be getting to the-a-sewers," said Mario rudely: one princess was enough for him to worry about these days.

"Oh right," said Luigi, "so you've gotten the last Crystal Star, right?"

"No!" shouted G-Yo, "That stupid ugly old hag of Bowser's stole it away! The no good rotten lousy-" he was cut off by Flurrie, sparing the exalted princess of the Yoshi kid's potty mouth.

"Yeah, now we totally gotta get the Thousand-Year Door to remark the map to show where she's taken the Opal Star, since we know she didn't, like, go back to Bowser's Castle," explained Goombella.

"Sounds exiting," said Éclair, "I hope you don't mind if I tag along for the show, do you?"

"Not at all!" said Luigi before Mario could respond, "we'll all go together!"

"Not me," sighed Toadsworth, he was disappointed that Mario hadn't brought the last Star back to save Peach; he excused himself and went back into the Inn. The others then processed to the Thousand-Year Door; Mario's party members chatted with Luigi's nonstop along the way. The green plumber himself talked with Éclair, but his brother was focused on getting to the Door and didn't participate in any of the conversations.

The Thousand-Year Door Chamber

The group turned the last corner and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Bowser was already there, accompanied by Kammy, and six Koopa Troop soldiers.

"Bowser!" shouted Mario.

"Yep, it's me, and you're too late to stop me this time!" said Bowser, jumping up onto the platform, holding the Opal Star above his head. Although he didn't have the map, the light show immediately started, greatly surprising the heroes.

However, this light show was different: not only did Bowser's Crystal Star fly into the air, all of Mario's did so as well. The eleven Stars soared around the chamber, dazzling everyone there. Suddenly they all turned and flew up through the ceiling.

Bowser had been laughing triumphantly throughout the entire affair with his arms held above his head victoriously. But when the light show ended, he fell silent and turned to the Thousand-Year Door expectantly. Although the seven star symbols on the doors glowed – as did the additional four on the surrounding wall – the door remained closed, not even allowing passage to the Palace of Shadow.

"Huh?" said Bowser after a moment, "what a rip-off!" He jumped down from the pedestal and ran over to the doors, which he promptly started pounding on. "Come on stupid Door, OPEN UP!!!!!" he bellowed furiously.

Mario wasn't happy either, "give the Stars-a-back Bowser!"

"Jeez drain-brain, the Stars flew away, weren't you paying attention?" growled Bowser over his shoulder, "and people say _I'm_ dense."

"Bring them-a-back, now!" shouted Mario, lunging towards the King of the Koopas. His troops sprang forward, but since there were only six of them, they were thoroughly thrashed by Mario in a matter of seconds. He even knocked Kammy off her broomstick with a single, anger-fueled fireball.

"Mario, wait!" shouted Goombella as the plumber started pummeling Bowser, who hadn't had enough time to turn around and defend himself. Luigi and the others winced as the two kicked, scratched, bit, flamed and elbowed each other. But empowered by his anger at being delayed from saving Peach, Mario soon had the Koopa King at his nonexistent mercy.

He was about to finish the battered Dragon-Koopa off when Goombella hopped in front of the plumber. "You can't kill him!" she shouted, "remember the Endangered Species Act? Bowser doesn't have the Stars so you wouldn't really be able to justify your actions to the authorities, and they'd lock you away!"

"I-a-**hate** the ESA!" shouted Mario, angrily lowering his flaming hands.

Goombella turned to Bowser smiling, but the Koopa just glared at her angrily, "why'd ya have to go and do that!?! Now I'll never get toilet-breath to break that law!"

"But he was gonna totally kill you!" said Goombella, flummoxed at Bowser's frustration.

"He's done it before! And thanks to you he'll do it again! I was so close to getting him locked away! I could taste the freedom!" moaned Bowser, licking his lips, before making a face, "er, maybe it was actually blood that I was tasting, but what's new?"

Before Goombella could respond to the king's candid comment, Toadsworth came running into the chamber.

"Master Mario! Old boy! There's a giant rainbow staircase rising into the sky! It just appeared! Come! You must see!" exclaimed the old Toad. The others quickly turned and followed him out of the room; and after one last look at the bruised and bloody Bowser, Goombella left too. After a moment, Bowser stiffly got to his feet and staggered over to Kammy, holding his pounding head.

"Hey, get up," he said poking his advisor, who remained oblivious to the world. Bowser growled and opened his mouth to flame her awake. But all that accomplished was making him dizzy, and he fell over unconscious thanks to his Mario-caused concussion.

Rogueport Plaza

Toadsworth had spoken the truth: there was indeed a large rainbow spiral staircase extending up from the hangman's platform. It twisted its way high into the air and at the top of it was a huge multi-coloured castle, floating in the sky. The Crystal Stars circled the staircase and the distant citadel, leaving long glittering trails behind them.

"Mamma-mia!" exclaimed Mario.

"Wow! The Rainbow Fortress," breathed Goombella, remembering the story Beldam told the group over in Glitzville.

"That's right!" called a voice from high in the sky. The group looked up to see Shadow Yoshi swoop into sight, followed by Mad Jack the Magikoopa, who was carrying Peach.

"MARIO!" she wailed, but she was still tied up and barely managed to squirm in Jack's grasp.

"Peach!" exclaimed Mario, shooting a massive fireball at Jack, who easily reflected it with a spell.

"Haha foolish human!" mocked Shadow Yoshi, "you'll never get the girl back that way! But I must thank you for opening up the Rainbow Fortress for me, I could have done it myself, but manipulating people to do my dirty work is so much fun!" With that he flew up beside the staircase with Mad Jack, eventually becoming nothing more than specks before disappearing into the fortress.

"Oh nooooo!" shouted Mario, running up the stairs. His loyal companions followed him, but Luigi lagged behind.

"Are you not going to help your brother?" asked Éclair.

"Uhhhh," said Luigi nervously.

"You were so brave in the Waffle Kingdom, I'm sure your brother could use your help," she said, behind her Luigi's friends sniggered – they knew how wrong she was.

But, inaccurate or not, Éclair's words gave Luigi the courage he needed to follow his brother. She may be dating the Chestnut King, but Luigi was determined to impress the beautiful princess, and he started up the staircase. His friends were surprised at his bravery, but followed him nonetheless as he hurried to catch up with the others.

Rainbow Fortress

After a long and tiresome hike that lasted long into the afternoon, Mario, Luigi and the other breathless heroes reached the giant castle in the sky. Flurrie and Blooey were the only ones unfazed by the journey, and they and the adrenaline-fueled Mario urged the others onto their feet. Then they entered the Rainbow Fortress.

It was very similar to the Crystal Palace, but without the glass, mirrors and Duplighosts in every room. The bright colours, although pretty, were also annoying to many party members, and as they made their way through the maze-like corridors, the group became more and more exasperated. Vivian didn't want a repeat of the previous night, and tirelessly tried to keep the peace.

She would have failed had the group not tracked down Shadow Yoshi as quickly as they did (having followed Peach's incessant calls for help). Mario busted open the final door to reveal a large room, with a sizeable window in the side opposite to the door. Shadow Yoshi stood in front of a large black treasure chest, not unlike the ones that the Shadow Queen used to imprison the Four Heroes long ago. Jack and the princess had been watching him mess with the lock from afar. But when the heroes showed up, all activity in the room ceased.

"Heh, I knew Peach's screaming would get you here quickly," sneered Shadow Yoshi, "but not quickly enough for you to stop me."

"He sounds like Bowser," muttered Koops. But when Shadow Yoshi threw open the chest, the Koopa immediately fell silent.

A sinister cackling spread through the room, and two white gloves rose out of the chest; as they grew in size Shadow Yoshi joined in their disembodied laughter. "Behold! Master Hand and Crazy Hand!" he said, "and behold your doom!"

Shadow Yoshi waved his arms forward and the demon Hands obeyed, flying towards Mario and the others. The 14 heroes leapt out of the way in all directions, and a frantic and chaotic battle commenced. Although they were more numerous, the heroes had a disadvantage over the Hands. They were very powerful, and since Shadow Yoshi was controlling them from the sidelines, the chaos of the fighting didn't confuse and disorient the demons like it did the others. Also, whenever one of the Hands was getting worn down, Mad Jack would heal it with his magic. It looked hopeless for the heroes, and Shadow Yoshi knew this.

He pulled back the Hands for a moment and laughed at the heroes who were all sweating and panting. "You'll never win," he sneered, grinning darkly.

"Yes we-a-will," said Mario, "and we-a-will continue-a-fighting until Peach is-a-free!"

"Oh really," said Shadow Yoshi, looking over at Peach. He then jumped over and snatched her from Mad Jack, pulling out a jagged dagger from a small scabbard the Magikoopa had been wearing. "Then I'll just have to eliminate that motivation."

"Nooooo!" shouted Mario, leaping towards Shadow Yoshi, but Master Hand grabbed him in mid air, and held the plumber firmly in its crushing grasp.

"Hahahaha!" cackled Shadow Yoshi, "Say 'goodbye' princess!"

"Ahhh!" she screamed closing her eyes as Shadow Yoshi brought the dagger down towards her neck.

Suddenly there was a blast of fire from the window and the blade flew from Shadow Yoshi's grasp. Everyone looked to see Bowser standing on the window ledge, Kammy floating on her broom beside him.

"Bowser!" shouted Peach, at this point she didn't care who was saving her, the fact that she was still alive was enough for her.

"That's right princess, as long as I'm here no one will harm you!" he said, puffing out his chest.

"Oh really?" snarled Shadow Yoshi, letting Peach drop onto the floor, "get 'em Jack!"

Jack sent a spell shooting towards Bowser, but Kammy countered it with a spell of her own before flying over to the other Magikoopa. "Mad Jack?" she gasped, "but you stink at offensive magic!"

"Your Jack might, but not me y'old bat, I'm from your Nega-Realm, see, and I'm the most dangerous thing around," said Jack haughtily.

"Enough talk! Get her!" ordered Shadow Yoshi.

"Yes, Your Highness!" said Jack, diving towards Kammy.

"'Your Highness'? How unoriginal," mocked Kammy as she dodged the younger Magikoopa's attack. The two then started a viscous duel; spells were flying everywhere as the two figures sliced through the air. Bowser had never seen Kammy go so fast, it seemed Jack inspired great contempt in the old witch. But he didn't let that distract him as he took on Shadow Yoshi himself.

Kammy had healed Bowser from his encounter with Mario in the sewers. She had then levitated him up to the fortress as he had left his Clown Car in Dark Land, and the Koopa Cruiser was washed up – out of gas – on a beach just outside Rogueport; effectively out of commission until his six soldiers could track down some fuel. Now, Bowser was ready and rearing to go, and since he wasn't fighting Mario he was confidant he could win. The others watched in awe at the two battles raging above them and on the other side of the room. Luigi was the first to come to his senses.

"C'mon guys!" he said, "while Shadow Yoshi's busy with Bowser we can get the Hands and free Mario!"

But it was easier said than done; Master Hand and Crazy Hand were capable of coordinating themselves, and they were still as powerful as ever. But the group managed to free Mario relatively quickly, and together they wore the demons down, slowly but surely.

Meanwhile, Kammy wasn't making any ground at all; neither she nor Mad Jack were landing any attacks. And she was old: there was no way she could keep up all this fancy flying for long, especially not after levitating Bowser up to the Rainbow Fortress. She wracked her brain on how to beat Jack. Her world's Jack was a great defensive artist, but he couldn't even kill a baby Goomba, much less give Kammy a run for her money.

Suddenly Kammy realized how to win. Since her world's Jack was a great defender, this opposite Jack must be a horrid defender. The only reason she hadn't finished him off was because he used his offensive spells to counter hers. If he couldn't counter, and he couldn't defend, he was toast. Kammy cackled as she sent out her most powerful spell: a large, green wave of energy.

"What!?!" exclaimed Jack, as he tried unsuccessfully to blast a hole in the wave. It racked over his body and he shouted in pain before falling to the ground unconscious, right on top of Shadow Yoshi.

"Hey!" shouted Shadow Yoshi angrily, shoving the comatose Magikoopa off his back. But the interference was enough for Bowser. He let loose a massive flare and scorched the Yoshi. He then ran up behind the flames and slashed at his foe, scratching and knocking out the villain in one move.

"Bwa ha ha ha! I WON!!!!!!" shouted Bowser, gleefully; he was so exited he had to restrain himself from jumping around in the air cheering – he would save that until he beat Mario.

"Yay!" said Peach, overjoyed that the vile Yoshi was defeated. Suddenly she was lifted into the air by Bowser.

"Well, let's get going, Peach!" he said, running around the ongoing fight between the hands and the 14 heroes. Peach blinked stupidly for a second, in all her excitement she had forgotten Bowser was her enemy. She had gotten him confused with his valiant Nega-Realm counterpart. But when he said 'Peach' instead of 'Peaches', the princess' mind was snapped back to reality.

"Mario!" she called as Bowser ran through the doorway (followed by Kammy). Mario heard Peach and followed her latest kidnappers out of the room.

"Wait!" yelled Luigi, but his brother paid him no heed and disappeared in the twisting tunnels of the Rainbow Fortress. "Oh no, what do we do now?' he moaned.

"Hey you sound like Koops!" said G-Yo, scandalized that the brother of 'The Great Gonzales' was such a wimp.

"Yeah, and that's not a good thing," agreed the scaredy-cat Koopa.

"As for what we do now," said Blooey, "we stay and fight!"

"And not dress up like Peach!" said Jerry.

"I don't think he was going to suggest _that_ sweetie," said Ms. Mowz.

"I wouldn't put it past him," muttered Torque, still irked about Luigi's irresponsibility wrecking his go-cart.

"What does crossdressing have to do with fighting giant monster hands anyway?" asked Bobbery, having no knowledge about Luigi's unusual adventures in the Waffle Kingdom.

"When it comes to the green plumber, everything," said Screamy quietly.

"Does not!" snapped Luigi, in one of his rare moments of resolve.

"Enough! On the eve of a final performance, the actors do not bicker, we take the stage!" said Flurrie.

"I couldn't have said it better myself darling!" said Hayzee.

"But our lead actor isn't here," pointed out Vivian, maintaining the others' metaphor.

"So? We were there on all his adventures," said Goombella, "and Luigi and his friends had their own adventures too, and we can totally beat these Hands ourselves! Together!"

"Yeah!" shouted the others, lunging towards their enemies with renewed energy. In no time the Hands were battered and worn, their white-gloved selves tattered and dirty. The group then pushed them over to the chest and as they closed it, the demons were sucked into their prison once again.

The Rainbow Staircase

Unaware of his friends' triumph, Mario continued to pursue Bowser, Kammy (and Peach), catching up with them on the first bend of the staircase in the sky.

"Release Peach!" ordered Mario, but Bowser only laughed.

"After going through all that do you honestly think I'll give up so easily?" he sneered. However, it might have been in the Koopa King's best interests if he _had_ surrendered. Kammy was worn out from her fight with Mad Jack, and Mario wrestled her broom out of her hands in no time, using it like a baseball bat to send the old Magikoopa flying into the distance and over the mountains.

"Kammy!" shouted Bowser. Peach – who was still being held firmly under his arm – thought she detected a hint of concern in the big Dragon-Koopa's voice.

Mario didn't hear it though, and took advantage of Bowser's distraction to pull the princess free of his grasp, and then blast him in the face with a fireball. Bowser grunted in pain and stumbled on the steep stairs. Mario charged and rammed the King of the Koopas in the stomach and he staggered over to the edge of the stairs.

"Nooo!" yelled Bowser, waving his arms around as he desperately tried to regain his balance, teetering on the brink of the stairway. But Mario took no pity on his enemy, and jumped on Bowser's face. The King of the Koopas lost his balance and screamed as he fell off the path. Plummeting through the centre of the spiral stairwell he flailed his limbs in a desperate attempt to catch hold of the pathway that curved around him, always out of reach.

Bowser braced himself as he smashed through the wooden hangman's platform, and crashed through the first level of the Rogueport Sewers, dropping into the Thousand-Year Door Chamber where he landed on the pedestal in front of the Door, shattering it, and lying lifeless on the broken slabs of rock.

Mario and Peach didn't know this, and neither did the others who caught up to them shortly after Bowser fell. Peach was very upset with Mario for killing Bowser again, and after he untied her she didn't even give him the usual 'thank you' kiss on the cheek.

But they didn't have time to argue long as the stairwell started shaking and rumbling (as a result of Bowser destroying the pedestal). The group decided it was best to get back to ground before the stairwell destroyed itself so they ran as fast as they could. There was a couple times when the stairwell fazed out of reality for a moment and the group dropped through space, landing on the next level down once the stairway reappeared. Miraculously they made it to the splintered gallows before the stairs disappeared in the evening sky for good, as did the Rainbow Fortress.

The eleven Crystal Stars still sailed through the air, then one by one they exploded in a shimmering fireworks display. The people of Rogueport 'ooed' and 'awed' as the Diamond, Emerald, Gold, Ruby, Sapphire, Garnet, Crystal, Amethyst, Topaz, Silver and Opal Stars released their energy and rained it down on the city. People all over the land watched, from Keelhaul Key to Astroville, from the Great Tree to Blaarg Volcano; even TEC on the moon monitored the light show, glad that Peach was safe.

But as the heroes gazed up in the sky, they saw a dark shadow flying down from the heavens. It was Shadow Yoshi and Mad Jack. "Mark my words I'll have my revenge!" shouted Shadow Yoshi, "one day you will all be my evening meals!"

"That's totally gross," said Goombella.

"And stupid! You're a disgrace to Yoshis everywhere!" jeered G-Yo, before spouting off a whole slew of profanity. And for once, Vivian and Flurrie let him have his freedom of speech.

Shadow Yoshi growled and flew out of sight, followed by Mad Jack, who flashed the group a rude hand gesture as he disappeared. The heroes didn't care and cheered at their hard-fought victory. Their crazy adventure had finally come to an end.

Rougeport Docks

The group had had a good night's sleep and woke early next mourning to reports of the disablement of the Thousand-Year Door. Because Bowser had smashed the podium, not only had the Crystal Stars become unstable and disappeared, but the Rainbow Fortress and Palace of Shadow were also cut off from the 'real' world forever. Since the Stars were destroyed, Vivian and the others figured the Shadow Queen also ceased to exist, something they weren't overly sad about. Also, Mario's magic map went blank when the Stars' existences ended, so he gave it to Frankly who stashed it away in case he could one day get it to work again.

The Nega-Realm wormhole had also disappeared, and losing the Shadow Queen's old haunts wasn't much of a price to pay to be rid of Shadow Yoshi, and to have Peach back safe and sound.

But, she and the others were still weary from the whole ordeal, and Peach suggested a vacation. Mario, however, was less than enthusiastic, since every 'vacation' they ever took had been turned into a calamity by Bowser.

"How about you come to the Waffle Kingdom?" suggested Princess Éclair, "you could technically say it is a diplomatic visit to strengthen foreign affairs with a far away country. And besides, I do not think Bowser knows enough to bother you in my land."

"Oh! What a wonderful Idea!" exclaimed Peach happily; but on the inside, she was sad. She wondered about Bowser: he had disappeared from the Thousand-Year Door Chamber without a trace, and she was worried about him. Her time with Nega-Bowser taught Peach to look at people differently – as he had said, they weren't black and white. And although this world's Bowser was a fairly dark grey, Mario wasn't all that light. Peach had heard stories from his partners, like the incident with the Baby Blaargs; and she had seen it herself: Mario didn't need to push Bowser off the stairs, but he did so in anger; it was senseless violence. Maybe Mario wasn't Peach's true love after all…

Of course, the mismatching couldn't have been as bad as Luigi's one-sided love for Princess Éclair.

As the group got ready to board Éclair's ship, Goombella and the others came onto the docks. "We're ready to go!" said the plucky little Goomba girl. She couldn't wait to learn more about the onion-ghosts from Screamy.

The others had also made new friends. Jerry had become a big fan of Bobbery, who in turn had become friends with Blooey, his fellow sea-being. Also, the three of them were planning on teaching Koops to be more brave, something Koopie Koo was quite enthusiastic of – so enthusiastic they decided to let her tag along too.

Hayzee and Flurrie had unsurprisingly hit it off, and were planning to go into big business together, with or without Doopliss' participation. G-Yo and Torque had a lot in common as well, both being the little guys with fire in their bellies. Vivian was glad G-Yo had gotten himself a new friend, even if she hadn't. But as always, she was happy just to be with her old pals. Ms. Mowz hadn't gotten any new amigos either, but the prospect of going to a new land filled with new treasures and badges was enough for her.

And of course, wherever Peach went Toadsworth went; and Luigi would follow Éclair to the ends of the Mushroom World, so naturally they were coming too.

As the group boarded the ship, Éclair told them there was one more guest on her way. After a couple minutes the group heard footsteps on the gangway, and turned to see Princess Daisy stepping over the railing.

"Hi!" she said, smiling. Luigi almost fainted: both girls he liked, on one ship. He didn't know if it was his worst nightmare, or his dream come true.

The ship blasted its horn and pulled out of the harbour. The group looked behind them as the beginning place of their last adventure grew smaller and smaller on the horizon. Before turning away, and embracing the adventure to come.

'**Peach' Interlude #6**

The Nega-Realm

Shadow Yoshi hadn't said a word on the entire flight back to the wormhole. Once they were though he ordered Mad Jack to seal the portal, and he did as he was told. They flew over the dark and gloomy land as the orange sky hung stagnantly overhead. Ruling Mario's technicolour world would have been great, and the Rainbow Fortress' colours blew Jack away; but now, they both were lost to the villains forever.

Shadow Yoshi flew down to his castle and whooshed past the guards Jack followed behind, until he was suddenly jumped from behind and shoved into a magic-proof bag. He tried to yell for help but his voice was muffled and his master took no notice of his absence.

Shadow Yoshi coasted into the Throne Room and landed heavily on his silver chair. He called for the servants to bring him a Barbecued Goomba, and asked for his wife and kids to assemble in the room. But all that came was a hoard of assorted Koopas, Toads, and various other creatures.

"What's all this!?" shouted Shadow Yoshi angrily, trying to get up, but he couldn't: he was stuck to his throne. "What's going on!?!"

"A revolution is going on, that's what," growled a familiar voice. Nega-Bowser stomped out from the shadows; with him were Shadow Yoshi's family, in chains. "Ya see, we're tired of the way you've been treating us, and we figured it's time for a change."

The other creatures murmured their agreements, Shadow Yoshi was furious and shot his green tongue at Nega-Bowser, who caught it and held it taught.

"Oh no, you'll never get me that way," sneered Nega-Bowser, before releasing the squirming tongue. "Your time has come and gone, and now we will rule you, in a glorious new order."

The people around Nega-Bowser cheered. He smiled, _wherever you are Peaches, I did it, I've started that rebellion, and now I'm free_.

**Bowser Interlude #6**

Rogueport Sewers

Bowser's world spun; he was sore all over, his mind kept slipping in and out of blackness. He hated dying. But eventually his senses started returning, he felt himself being dragged across the floor. The cobblestones racked at his scaled flesh, he groaned at the discomfort.

He stopped moving, he heard urgent whispering. A male and female voice, but he couldn't identify who they were, and he hurt too much to open his eyes. He heard more whispering; the female voice was very familiar, and very unsettling. Suddenly the near silence was pierced by an extremely loud noise: a chain saw, right beside Bowser's ear.

The Dragon-Koopa's eyes flew open and he looked up to see Toodles and a yellow chicken-thing standing above him. The chicken was holding the chainsaw.

"Ahhh!" screamed Bowser, jumping away from the saw.

"Yo!" said Rawk Hawk, "I'm not doin' this now that he's awake! No way! I'm not gettin' flattened again!" He turned off the saw and set it down on the ground beside Toodles, before he walked away.

"Grr," hissed Toodles, "who need's him?" she bent over and picked up a large axe. She grinned like a maniac at Bowser, who was still a little dazed from his most recent death experience and hadn't quite come to terms with reality yet. "Now your horns will be mine!" She then lunged for the King of the Koopas with a Xena-the-Warrior-Princess-esque war cry.

This brought Bowser to his senses and he jumped out of the way of the axe. "Ahhh!" he screamed as he ran for the exit. Followed closely by Toodles. After a frantic chase he found his way out of the sewers and made a beeline to the beach. He rounded the last bend in time to see his fully fueled Koopa Cruiser taking off without him.

Bowser moaned – he had told his lackeys to move the Cruiser as soon as they could, and to go back to Dark Land and pick up any more fighting-fit troops. Now he was stranded. Suddenly there was a whoosh and Toodles' axe embedded itself in the wooden post Bowser had been leaning against. He turned around to see the crazed Toad woman running at him, shrieking at the top of her petite lungs.

Had Bowser not just recovered from a 100-story fall, he would have finished off the pest right there and then. But as it was, his head was pounding, he was sore all over and felt a bit nauseous. Any attempt to breathe fire would probably result in an entirely different form of projectile. So, Bowser just sighed and ran away back to town.

He was about halfway there when a shadow flew down from above. "Need a lift, Your Resurrectedness?" asked Kammy, who was using her jeweled wand to control the Clown Car.

"Yes," said Bowser, masking his happiness at seeing his advisor alive and well. Kammy brought the Car lower to the ground and Bowser vaulted into it. Speeding away into the sky.

Beneath him Toodles fell to her knees in despair, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I NEEEEEED YOUR HOOORRRRNNNNSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! **I NEEEEEEEEED THEMMMMM!!!!!! **NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

Bowser chuckled, before wincing as his head throbbed worse than before.

"Oh, let me help you with that, Your Sufferingness," said Kammy, resting her wand on Bowser's forehead.

The pain immediately went away all over his body; Bowser nearly sighed with relief, "thanks Kammy."

"Your welcome, Your Gratefulness."

"Don't push it."

"Sorry."

"Whatever… So anyway, I was thinking," started Bowser, now that the pain was gone he was thinking clearly again, "we need a vacation; just me, and you, and the kids, and maybe a couple soldiers, just to be safe."

"Oh, that sounds great!" exclaimed Kammy, touched that Bowser wanted to take her along too.

"Yeah," he continued grinning, "and I've got the best place in mind too. A far away country where Mario couldn't _possibly_ bother us, I'm not even sure he knows about it at all."

"Oh, really, Your Cautiousness, where?"

"The Waffle Kingdom!"

**The End**


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